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NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 



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THE TABLE TALK AND 
OPINIONS OF 

NAPOLEON "BUONAPARTE, 




Sic cogitavit." — Bacon. 



LONDON: (y 
SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON. 

CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 







PREFACE. 




HE aim of this volume is so clearly seen 
in its title, that few words are necessary 
here, and these will be used only to as- 
sure the reader, that from the mass of literature 
which has already grown around the history of 
the most extraordinary captain and statesman of 
modern times, the conversations, phrases and 
opinions which are most characteristic have been 
carefully gathered together, and subjected to some 
sort of arrangement ; so that we have here, in a 
small compass, that which will best, without bias, 
form our judgment of a man who, while he has 
on the one hand been unduly exalted, has on the 
other been unjustly condemned. Judged here by 
his own words, by his warm opinions, his ardent 
wishes, his generous impulses, or his selfish and 
b 



il PREFACE. 

inexorable determinations, he will perhaps receive 
that justice which he believed posterity would 
accord him. 

Judges of literary work will easily perceive the 
difficulty of adequately performing this task in so 
small a space. It would have been easier to have 
written a much larger volume, just as it is less 
difficult to produce several gallons of tasteless 
broth than one half pint of Liebig's essence of 
meat. It was indeed of the life of Napoleon that 
Sir Walter Scott declared that " he produced nine 
volumes because he had not time to write one." If 
the critics will bear this in mind, the necessity for 
omission of purely military and political matters 
and details, they will probably not complain that 
we have not given all the words of a great man 
during a busy life. 

It may be as well, however, for the editor of 
the series, while bearing witness to the industry 
and judgment of the compiler, to submit a list of 
the chief works consulted, with a remark that 
were it ostentatiously paraded, it could be very 
largely extended. 

"History of Napoleon." By J. G. Lockhart. 
Murray's Family Library. 

" History of Napoleon." Sir Walter Scott. 



PREFACE. iii 

" Recits de la Captivite de l'Empereur Napoleon 
a S te - Helene." Par le Comte Montholon. 

"The Last Days of the Emperor Napoleon." 
G. Antommarchi. 

Caulaincourt's " Recollections of Napoleon." 

" The Entertaining History of the Early Years 
of Napoleon." By a Royal Emigrant. 

"Private Memoirs of Napoleon." By Bour- 
rienne. 

"Memoires de Josephine." 

" The Edinburgh Review." (Several volumes.) 

" Memoirs of Fouche." 

" The Court and Camp of Buonaparte." 

" The Book of Fate of H. I. M. Napoleon." 

" The Last Six Weeks of Napoleon's Life." By 
John Monkhouse, a Naval Officer. 

"History of a Visit to St. Helena." By Mrs. 
Ward. (Privately printed.) 

Various pamphlets, reviews, private memoirs, 
&c. 




TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 
NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 




1773. 
£HEN Napoleon was about fourteen, he was 
conversing with a lady about Marshal Tu- 
renne, and extolling him to the skies. 

" Yes, my friend," she answered, " he was 
a great man ; but I should like him better if he had not 
burnt the Palatinate." 

" What does that matter," he replied briskly, " if the 
burning was necessary to the success of his plans ?" 

Napoleon's German master, a heavy and phlegmatic 
man, who thought the study of German the only one ne- 
cessary to a man's success in life, finding Napoleon absent 
from his class one day, asked where he was. He was 
told he was undergoing his examination for the artillery. 

" Does he know anything then?" he asked ironically. 

" Why, sir, he is the best mathematician in the 
school." 

" Well," was his sage remark, " I have always heard 
say, and I always thought, that mathematics was a study 
only suitable to fools." 



2 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" It would be satisfactory to know," Napoleon said 
twenty years after, " if my professor of languages lived 
long enough to enjoy his discernment." 

In 1782, at one of the holiday school fetes at Brienne, 
to which all the inhabitants of the place were invited, 
guards were established to preserve order. The dignities 
of officer and subaltern were conferred only on the most 
distinguished. Bonaparte was one of these on a certain 
occasion, when "The Death of Caesar" was to be per- 
formed. A janitor's wife who was perfectly well known 
presented herself for admission without a ticket. She 
made a clamour, and insisted upon being let in, and the 
sergeant reported her to Napoleon, who, in an impe- 
rative tone, exclaimed, " Let that woman be removed, 
who brings into this place the licence of a camp." 

Bonaparte was confirmed at the military school at 
Paris. At the name of Napoleon, the archbishop who 
confirmed him, expressed his astonishment, saying that 
he did not know this saint, that he was not in the 
calendar, &c. The child answered unhesitatingly, " That 
that was no reason, for there were a crowd of saints in 
Paradise, and only 365 days in the year." 1 

Dining one day with one of the professors at Brienne, 
the professor knowing his young pupil's admiration for 
Paoli, spoke disrespectfully of the general to tease the 
boy. Napoleon was energetic in his defence. " Paoli, 

1 In a little volume, published about 1802, entitled." Authen- 
tic Memoirs of Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic, 
from his birth to the present time," the anecdote is finished as 
follows: — "Napoleon," the assistant minister remarked to the 
prelate, "I do not know that saint." "I believe it," replied 
Napoleon ; " the saint is a Corsican ! " 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 3 

sir," said he, " was a great man ! he loved his country ; 
and I shall never forgive my father for consenting to 
the union of Corsica with France." 

Speaking of his early attachment to Mademoiselle du 
Colombier, Napoleon said, " We were the most innocent 
creatures imaginable. We contrived short interviews 
together. I well remember one which took place on a 
midsummer's morning, just as the light began to dawn. 
It will hardly be believed that all our happiness consisted 
in eating cherries together." 

1790. When at Auxonne, Napoleon and some subal- 
tern officers were quartered at the house of a barber. / 
Napoleon, as usual when off duty, shut himself in his V 
room and devoted himself to study. The other young 
officers amused themselves by coquetting with the bar- 
ber's pretty wife, who was much annoyed that her 
charms had no power to draw Napoleon from his studies. 
Afterwards, when in command of the army in Italy, 
Napoleon passed through Auxonne, on his way to Ma- 
rengo. He stopped at the barber's door, and asked his 
former hostess if she remembered a young officer by the 
name of Bonaparte, who once quartered in her family. 

" Indeed I do," she replied pettishly ; " and a very dis- 
agreeable young man he was. He was always shut up 
in his room, and if he did walk out, he never conde- 
scended to speak to any one." 

u Ah! my good woman!" Napoleon rejoined, "had 
I passed my time as you wished to have me, I should / 
not now have been in command of the army of Italy." 

One evening, just after the demolition of the Bastile, 
Napoleon, in M. Neckar's drawing-room, in a long 



4 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

speech which he made, much to the astonishment of 
every one, said, " If our troops are not compelled un- 
hesitatingly to obey the commands of the executive, 
we shall be exposed to the blind fury of democratic pas- 
sions, which will render France the most miserable 
country on the globe. The ministry may be assured 
that if the daily increasing arrogance of the Parisian 
mob is not repressed by a strong arm, and social order 
rigidly maintained, we shall see not only this capital, but 
every other city in France, thrown into a state of in- 
describable anarchy, while the real friends of liberty, 
the enlightened patriots now working for the best good 
of our country, will sink beneath a set of demagogues, 
who, with louder outcries for freedom on their tongues, 
will be in reality but a horde of savages worse than the 
Neros of old." 

1792. While in Paris, on the 20th of June, Napoleon 
was walking with Bourrienne on the banks of the Seine. 
They followed the multitude, and saw them swarm into 
the Tuileries, drag the humiliated king into the em- 
brasure of a window, and force him to put the red cap 
on his head. Napoleon turned from the sight, ex- 
claiming, " The wretches ! how could they suffer this 
vile mob to enter the palace ! They should have swept 
down the first five hundred with grape shot, and the rest 
would have soon taken to flight." 

" I frankly declare/' said Napoleon, " that if I were 
compelled to choose between the old monarchy and 
Jacobin misrule, I should infinitely prefer the former." 

One evening, in the midst of the Reign of Terror, on 
returning from a walk through the streets of Paris, a 
lady asked him — 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 5 

" How do you like the new Constitution ? " 

He replied hesitatingly, 

" Why, it is good in one sense certainly ; but all that 
is connected with carnage is bad ;" and then he ex- 
claimed in an outburst of undisguised feeling, " No ! 
do ! no! down with this constitution ; I do not like it!" 

1794. During the siege of Toulon, one of the agents 
of the Convention ventured to criticise the position of a 
gun which Napoleon was superintending. " Do you," 
he tartly replied, " attend to your duty as national 
commissioners, and I will be answerable for mine with 
my head." 

Napoleon's younger brother Louis visited him during 
this siege. They went together one morning to a place 
where a fruitless assault had been made, and two hun- 
dred Frenchmen were dead upon the ground. On be- 
holding them, Napoleon exclaimed, " All those men have 
been needlessly sacrificed. Had intelligence commanded 
here, none of these lives need have been lost. Learn from 
this, my brother, how indispensable and imperatively 
necessary it is that those should possess knowledge who 
aspire to assume the command over others." 

" General," said Bonaparte to Dugommier, as he 
raised the tri-coloured flag over the crumbling walls of 
the rampart, " go and sleep. We have taken Toulon." 

An officer, entering Napoleon's room, found, much to 
his astonishment, Napoleon dressed and studying. 

" What ! " exclaimed his friend, " are you not in bed 

yet?" 



JF* 



6 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" In bed ! " replied Napoleon. " I have finished niy 
sleep, and already risen." 

" What, so early ! " the other replied. 

" Yes," continued Napoleon, " so early. Two or three 
hours of sleep are enough for any man." 

Napoleon had a great contempt for the effeminate 
young men of his time. He exclaimed one day, " Can 
it be that upon such creatures Fortune is willing to 
lavish her favours ! How contemptible is human 
nature ! " 

V 

When Barras introduced Napoleon to the Convention 
as a fit man to be entrusted with the command, the Pre- 
sident asked, 

" Are you willing to undertake the defence of the 
Convention ? " 

" Yes," was the reply. 

After a time the President continued— 

" Are you aware of the magnitude of the under- 
taking?" 

" Perfectly," replied Napoleon, fixing his eyes upon 
his questioner ; u and I am in the habit of accomplishing 
that which I undertake." 

" How could you," a lady asked him about this time, 
" fire thus mercilessly upon your countrymen ? " 

" A soldier,' ' he replied calmly, " is only a machine 
to obey orders. This is my seal which I have impressed 
upon Paris." 

Napoleon's apt replies often excited good humour in 
I a crowd. 

v A large and brawny fishwoman once was harnnguing 
the mob, and telling them not to disperse. She finished 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 7 

by exclaiming, "Never mind those coxcombs with epau- 
lets on their shoulders ; they care not if we poor people 
all starve, if they can but feed well and grow fat." 

Napoleon, who was as thin as a shadow, turned to her 
and said, " Look at me, my good woman, and tell me 
which of us two is the fatter." 

The fishfag was completely disconcerted, and the 
crowd dispersed. 

- 1796. " Good God !" Napoleon said in Italy, whilst re- 
siding at Montebello, " how rare men are. There are 
eighteen millions in Italy, and I have with difficulty 
found two, Dandolo and Melzi." 

" Europe !" Napoleon exclaimed at Passeriano, " Eu- 
rope is but a molehill ; there never have existed mighty 
empires, there never have occurred great revolutions, 
save in the East, where live six hundred millions of men 
— the cradle of all religions, the birth-place of all meta- 
physics." 

The night following the battle of Areola, Bonaparte 
disguised himself in the dress of an inferior officer, and 
traversed the camp. He found a sentinel leaning on the 
butt end of his musket, fast asleep. He gently placed 
his head on the ground, and kept watch for him for two 
hours. When the soldier woke and discovered Napoleon 
himself doing duty for him, he was terror-stricken. 
" The General ! Bonaparte !" he exclaimed ; "lam then 
undone." 

Bonaparte, with the greatest gentleness, replied, M Not 
so, fellow-soldier; recover yourself; after so much fa- 
tigue, a brave man like you may be allowed to sleep 
awhile ; but in future choose your time better." 



8 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

Just before his marriage Napoleon received the ap- 
pointment of Commander-in-chief of the army of Italy ; 
he was then twenty-six. u You are rather young," said 
one of the directors, "to assume responsibilities so 
weighty, and to take the command over veteran gene- 
rals." 

" In one year," Napoleon replied, " I shall be old or 
dead." 

" We can place you in command of men only," said 
Carnot, ." for the troops require everything, and we can 
furnish you with no money to provide supplies." 

" Give me only men enough," Napoleon answered, 
" and I ask for nothing more ; I will be answerable for 
the result." 

" My extreme youth when I took command of the 
army of Italy," Napoleon remarked afterwards, " made 
it necessary for me to evince great reserve of manners, 
and the utmost severity of morals. This was indispen- 
sable to enable me to sustain authority over men so 
greatly superior in age and experience. I pursued a 
line of conduct in the highest degree irreproachable and 
exemplary. In spotless morality I was a Cato, and must- 
have appeared such to all. I was a philosopher and a 
sage. My supremacy could be retained only by proving 
myself a better man than any other man in the army. 
Had I yielded to human weaknesses I should have lost 
my power." 

At the first interview between Napoleon and the 

veteran generals whom he was to command, Rampon 

undertook to give the young commander some advice. 

Napoleon, who was impatient of advice, exclaimed, 

* " Gentlemen, the art of war is in its infancy. The time 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 9 

has passed in which enemies are mutually to appoint the 
place of combat, advance hat in hand, and say, ■ Gentle- 
men, will you have the goodness to fire f We must cut 
the enemy in pieces, precipitate ourselves, like a torrent, 
upon their battalions, and grind them to powder. Ex- 
perienced generals conduct the troops opposed to us ! 
So much the better ! so much the better ! Their expe- 
rience will not avail them against me. Mark my words, 
they will soon burn their books on tactics, and know not 
what to do. Yes j gentlemen ! the first onset of the 
Italian army will give birth to a new epoch in military 
affairs. As for us, we must hurl ourselves on the foe 
like a thunderbolt, and smite like it. Disconcerted by 
our tactics, and not daring to put them into execution, 
they will fly before us as the shades of night before the 
uprising sun." 

" My title of nobility dates from the battle of Monte - 
notte," said Napoleon to the Emperor of Austria. 

Napoleon sent the celebrated picture of St. Jerome 
from the Duke of Parma's gallery to the Museum at 
Paris. The duke, to save his work of art, offered Na- 
poleon two hundred thousand dollars, which the con- 
queror refused to take, saying : " The sum which he 
offers us will soon be spent ; but the possession of such 
a masterpiece at Paris will adorn that capital for ages, 
and give birth to similar exertions of genius." 

" It is impossible," said an officer at Lodi, " that any 
men can force their way across that narrow bridge, in 
the face of such an annihilating storm of balls as must 
be encountered." 



io TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

"How! impossible!" exclaimed Napoleon; "that 
word is not French." 

" Neither the quelling of the sections," said Napo- 
leon, " nor the victory of Montenotte, induced me to 
think myself a superior character. It was not till after 
" the terrible passage of the bridge of Lodi that the idea 
entered my mind that I might become a decisive actor 
in the political arena. Then arose for the first time 
-the spark of great ambition." 

"Different matters are arranged in my head," said 

Napoleon, " as in drawers ; I open one drawer and close 

<jf another as I wish. I have never been kept awake by 

'* an involuntary pre-occupation of the mind. If I desire 

repose, I shut up all the drawers, and sleep. I have 

always slept when I wanted rest, and almost at will." 

While at Milan, Napoleon had just mounted his horse 
one morning, when a dragoon, bearing important des- 
patches, presented himself before him, 

"Napoleon gave a verbal answer, and ordered the 
rf courier to take it back in all speed. 

" I have no horse," the man answered ; " I rode mine 
so hard that it fell dead at your palace gates." 

Napoleon alighted. " Take mine," he said. 

The man hesitated. 

" You think him too magnificently caparisoned and 
too fine an animal," said Napoleon. " Nothing is too 
good for a French soldier." 

"Pavia," said Napoleon, "is the only place I ever 
gave up to pillage. I promised that the soldiers should 
have it at their mercy for twenty -four hours ; but after 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. n 

three hours, I could bear such scenes of outrage no 
longer, and put an end to them. Policy and morality 
are equally opposed to the system. Nothing is so cer- 
tain to disorganise and completely ruin an army." 

" I have," said Napoleon, " a taste for founding, not 
for possessing. My riches consist in glory and cele- 
brity. The Simplon and the Louvre were, in the eyes 
of the people and of foreigners, more my property than 
any private domains could possibly have been." 

1797. The Directory sent General Clarke as an envoy 
to Napoleon's head-quarters, to conduct negotiations 
with the Austrians. "If you come here to obey me," 
said Bonaparte, " I shall always see you with pleasure ; 
if not, the sooner you return to those who sent you the 
better." 

To General Clarke, on the death of his nephew, at 
Areola, Napoleon wrote : — 

" Your nephew Elliot has been slain upon the battle- 
field. That young man has several times marched at 
the head of our columns. He has died gloriously, and 
in face of the enemy ; he did not have a moment's suffer- 
ing. Where is the reasonable man who would not envy 
such a death ? Where is he who, in the vicissitudes of 
life, would not give himself up to leave in this manner 
a world so often ungrateful ?" &c. 

Napoleon had no tendencies to gallantry. Madame 
de Stael once said to him, " It is reported that you are 
not very partial to the ladies." >-«*.■ 

" I am very fond of my wife, Madame," was his laconic * 
reply. 



12 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" The English," said Napoleon, " appear to prefer the 
bottle to the society of their ladies ; as is exemplified by 
dismissing the ladies from the table, and remaining for 
hours to drink and intoxicate themselves. If I were in 
England, I should decidedly leave the table with the 
ladies. If the object is to talk instead of to drink, why 
banish them ? Surely conversation is never so lively nor 
so witty as when ladies take a part in it. Were I an 
Englishwoman I should feel very discontented at being 
turned out by the men to wait for two or three hours 
while they were drinking. In France, society is nothing 
unless ladies are present. They are the life of conversa- 
tion." 

The Austrian Peace Commissioners had set down as 
the first article in their treaty that the emperor recog- 
nized the French Republic. 

" Strike that out !" said Napoleon. " The Republic 
is like the sun ; none but the blind can fail to see it. 
We are our own masters, and shall establish any govern- 
ment we prefer." " If the French people should one day 
wish to create a monarchy," he afterwards remarked, 
" the emperor might object that he had recognized a 
Republic." 

One of the Austrian commissioners concluded an in- 
sulting apostrophe by saying, " Austria wishes for peace, 
and she will severely condemn the negotiator who sacri- 
fices the interest and repose of his country to military 
ambition." 

Napoleon listened calmly, then rising and taking a 
beautiful vase in his hand, he replied, " Gentlemen, the 
truce is broken ; war is declared ; but remember, in 
three months I will demolish your monarchy, as I now 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 13 

shatter this porcelain," and he dashed the vase to frag- 
ments." 

"I conquer provinces," said Napoleon; "but Jo- 
sephine wins hearts." 

" Truly," said Napoleon, at Milan, " I have some- 
thing else to think of than love. No man wins triumphs 
in that way without forfeiting some palms of glory. I 
have traced out my plan, and the finest eyes in the 
world — and there are some very fine ones here — shall 
not make me deviate a hair's breadth from it." 

A lady of rank once said to him, " What is life worth 
if one cannot be General Bonaparte ? " 

Napoleon answered her wisely : " Madame ! one may 
be a dutiful wife, and the good mother of a family." 

Travelling through Switzerland, Napoleon was greeted 
with such enthusiasm that Bourrienne said to him, " It 
must be delightful to be greeted with such demonstra- 
tions of enthusiastic admiration." 

" Bah !" replied Napoleon ; " this same unthinking 
crowd, under a slight change of circumstances, would 
follow me just as eagerly to the scaffold." 

Bidding adieu to his troops, Napoleon said, " Soldiers ! 
I leave you to-morrow. In separating myself from the 
army, I am consoled with the thought that I shall soon 
meet you again, and engage with you in new enter- 
prizes. Soldiers ! when conversing among yourselves 
of the kings you have vanquished, of the people upon 
whom you have conferred liberty, of the victories you 
have won in two campaigns, say, * In the next two we 
will accomplish still more.' "' 



X 



14 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

At the magnificent, court of the Luxembourg, on the 
delivery of the treaty of Campo Formio, on the 10 th 
of December, 1797, Napoleon replied to Talleyrand's 
speech thus : " Citizens ! the French people, in order to 
be free, had kings to combat. To obtain a constitution 
founded on reason, it had the prejudices of eighteen 
centuries to overcome. Priestcraft, feudalism, despotism, 
have for two thousand years successively governed Eu- 
rope. From the peace you have just concluded dates 
the era of representative governments. You have suc- 
ceeded in organizing the great nation, whose vast terri- 
tory is circumscribed only, because Nature herself has 
fixed its limits. You have done more. The two finest 
countries in Europe, formerly so renowned for the arts, 
the sciences, and the illustrious men whose cradle they 
were, see, with the greatest hopes, genius and freedom 
issuing from the tomb of their ancestors. I have the 
honour to deliver to you the treaty signed at Campo 
Formio, and ratified by the emperor. Peace secures the 
liberty, the prosperity, and the glory of the Republic. 
As soon as the happiness of France is secured by the 
best organic laws, the whole of Europe will be free." 

Speaking of the Theophilanthropists, Napoleon said, 
" They can accomplish nothing ; they are merely actors." 

" What !" was the reply ; " do you thus stigmatise 
those whose tenets inculcate universal benevolence and 
the moral virtues ? " 

" All moral systems are fine," rejoined Napoleon. " The 
Gospel alone has shown a full and complete assemblage 
of the principles of morality, stripped of all absurdity. 
It is not made up, like your creed, of a few common- 
place sentences put into bad verse. Do you wish to find 
out the really sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 15 

Such enthusiasts are only to be met with the weapons of 
ridicule ; all their efforts will prove ineffectual." 

Returning to Paris after a survey of the English coast, 
Bourrienne asked him if he considered the enterprize 
against England feasible. 

" No ; it is too hazardous," Napoleon replied. " I will 
not undertake it. I will not risk on such a stake the 
fate of our beautiful France." 

The revolutionary government was in the habit of 
celebrating with great rejoicing the anniversary of the 
king's death, — the 21st of January. Napoleon was urged 
to honour the festival with his presence. He emphati- 
cally declined. " This/<pfe," said he, " commemorates a 
melancholy event — a tragedy, and can only be agreeable 
to a few. It is right to celebrate victories ; but victims 
left 'upon the field of battle are to be lamented. To 
celebrate the anniversary of a man's death is an act un- 
worthy of a government ; it irritates instead of calming ; 
it shakes a government to its foundations instead of 
strengthening it." 

1798. "I worked all day," said a man to Napoleon, as 

an apology for not having completed his assigned duty. 

"But had you not the night also?" Napoleon sug- 



Napoleon said to Bourrienne, on the 29th of Jan- 
uary, " Bourrienne, I shall remain here no longer ; they 
do not want me ; there is no good to be done ; they will 
not listen to me. I see, if I loiter here I am done for 
quickly. Here everything grows fiat; my glory is 



1 6 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

already on the wane. This little Europe of yours can- 
not supply the demand. u We must to the East ; all great 
reputations come from that quarter. But I will first 
take a turn round the coast to assure myself what can 
be done. I will take you with me, — you, Lannes, and 
Sulkowsky. If the success of a descent upon England 
appear doubtful, as I fear, the army of England shall 
become the army of the East, and I am off for Egypt." 

" Now, sir," said he to another, " use dispatch. Re- 
member that the world only took six days to create. 
Ask me for whatever you please, except time; that is the 
only thing which is beyond my power." 

" Before the departure for Egypt, Napoleon made the 
following proclamation to his troops : — 

" Soldiers ! you have made war in mountains, plains, 
and cities. It remains to make it on the ocean. The 
Roman legions, whom you have often imitated but not 
yet equalled, combated Carthage by turns on the seas 
and on the plains of Zama. Victory never deserted their 
standards, because they never ceased to be brave, pa- 
tient, and united. Soldiers ! the eyes of Europe are 
upon you. You have great destinies to accomplish, bat- 
tles to fight, dangers and fatigues to overcome. You are 
about to do more than you yet have done for the pros- 
perity of your country, the happiness of man, and for 
your own glory." 

Napoleon expressed his contempt for the directors in 
strong terms. " They cannot long retain their position," 
he said. " They know not how to do anything for the 
imagination of the nation.' 7 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 17 

Bourrienne asked Napoleon, before the expedition 
started, if he had really determined to risk his fate in 
Egypt. " Yes," was his reply ; " if I stay here, I shall 
have to upset this miserable government, and make 
myself king. But we must not think of that yet. The 
pear is not yet ripe. I have sounded, but the time is 
not yet come. I must first dazzle these gentlemen by 
my exploits." 

" My young friends," said Napoleon once to the pupils v. 
of a school he was visiting, " every hour of time is a <JK. 
chance of misfortune for future life." 

Just before disembarking, Napoleon had the fol- 
lowing proclamation issued to his troops : " Soldiers ! 
you are about to undertake a conquest fraught with in- 
calculable effects upon the commerce and civilization of 
the world. You will inflict upon England the most 
grievous stroke she can sustain before receiving her 
death-blow. The people with whom we are about to 
live are Mohammedans. Their first article of faith is, 
' There is but one God, and Mohammed is his prophet.' 
Contradict them not. Treat them as you have the 
Italians and the Jews. Show the same regard to their 
Muftis and Imams as you have shown to the Bishops and 
Rabbis. Manifest for the ceremonies of the Koran the 
same respect you have shown to the convents and syna- 
gogues, — to the religion of Moses and that of Jesus 
Christ. All religions were protected by the legions of 
Rome. You will here find customs greatly at variance 
with those of Europe. Accustom yourselves to respect 
them. Women are not treated here as with us ; but in 
every country he who violates is a monster. Plunder 
only enriches a few, while it dishonours an army, de- 
c 



1 8 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

stroys its resources, and makes enemies of those whom 
it is the interest of all to attach as friends." 

Writing to Kleber, the general-in-chief said, "The 
Christians will always be our friends ; we must take care 
they do not become too insolent, lest the Turks conceive 
against us the same fanaticism as against the Christians. 
This would render them irreconcileable to us." Again, 
writing at a later period to Menon, he adds, " I thank 
y ou for the honours you have paid to our Prophet" * 

" I never," said Napoleon, after his return from Egypt, 
" followed any of the tenets of the Mohammedan reli- 
gion. I never prayed in the mosques. I never abstained 
from wine, or was circumcised. I said merely, that we 
were friends of the Mussulman, and that I respected 
their Prophet, which was true ; I respect him now." 

" It is not written on high that I am to perish by the 
hands of the Arabs," said Napoleon, after an escape from 
a troop of Arab horsemen. 

Approaching Cairo, the glittering sun -gilded minarets 
of the city upon their left, and the gigantic pyramids 
upon their right, the army halted, and Napoleon, point- 
ing to those lofty antiquities, exclaimed, " Soldiers ! 
from those summits forty centuries contemplate your 
actions." 



* Referring to this and Napoleon's frequent conversations 
with the Mohammedan priesthood, Bourrienne says, iC If Bona- 
parte ever spoke as a Mussulman, he did so in the capacity of 
a military and political chief in a Mahometan country ... In 
India he would have been for Ali, for the Dalai Lama in Thibet, 
or Confucius in China." 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 19 

" I never passed the desert," said Napoleon, some time 
after, " without experiencing very painful emotions. It . 

was the image of immensity to my thoughts. It showed $f 
no limits. It had neither beginning nor end. It was an 
ocean for the foot of man." 



" Never yet, I believe," said Napoleon, " has there 
been such devotion shown by soldiers to their gene- 
ral as mine have displayed towards me. At Areola, 
Colonel Muiron threw himself before me, covered my 
body with his own, and received the blow which was 
intended for me. He fell at my feet, and his blood 
spouted up in my face. In all my misfortunes never has 
the soldier been wanting in fidelity — never has man been 
served more faithfully by his troops. With the last drop 
of blood gushing from their veins, they cried ' Vive Na- 
poleon!'" 

" Victory," said Napoleon, " belongs to the most per- 
severing." 



Of Prince Charles, with whom he fought repeated and 
desperate battles in his march upon Vienna, Napoleon 
said, " He is a good man, which includes everything whenX, 
said of a prince. He is incapable of a dishonourable 
action." 

1798. On receiving intelligence from Desaix in 
Upper Egypt, of the loss of a very fine dgerm, called 
" The Italy," Napoleon said to Bourrienne, " My ^ood 
friend, Italy is lost to France — it is all over — my pre- - 
sentiments never deceive me." " The prediction was 
soon realized," remarks Bourrienne. 



20 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" Bonaparte announced his entrance into Cairo," says 
Bourrienne, "by one of those lying bulletins that im- 
posed only on fools. ' I bring,' said he, in this precious 
document, ' many prisoners and colours. I have razed 
the palace of the Djezzar, the ramparts of Acre. There 
stands not one stone upon another. All the inhabitants 
fled by sea ; Djezzar is dangerously wounded.' I avow 
a painful sensation felt while writing these words from 
his dictation." Bourrienne continues, " It was difficult 
to refrain hazarding some observation ; but his constant 
reply was, ' My dear fellow, you are a ninny, and com- 
prehend nothing at all of the matter, 1 and with these 
words he signed what was to fill the world and inspire 
the historian ! " 

1799. "What a solace must Christianity be," said 
Napoleon, " to one who has an undoubting conviction 
of its truth." At another time he exclaimed, "The re- 
ligion of Jesus is a threat, that of Mohammed a promise." 

" I frankly confess," said Napoleon again and again, 
" that if I must choose between Bourbon oppression and 
mob violence, I infinitely prefer the former." 

" Friendship," said Napoleon, according to Bour- 
rienne, " is but a name. I love no one ; no, not even 
my brothers. Joseph, perhaps, a little. And if I do 
love him, it is because he is my elder, and from habit. 
Duroc ! ah yes, I love him too. But why ? His 
character pleases me. He is cold, reserved, and reso- 
lute, and I really believe that he never shed a tear. As 
to myself, I know well that I have not one true friend. 
As long as I continue what I am, I may have as many 
pretended friends as I please. We must leave sensi- 






NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 21 

bility to the women ; it is their business. Men should 
be firm in heart and in purpose, or they should have no- 
thing to do with war or government. I am not amiable ; 
no, I am not amiable. I never have been, but I am 
just." 

On board ship, in the midst of a party of atheistical 
officers, Napoleon suddenly stopped before them, and 
said, in tones of great dignity, " Gentlemen, your argu- 
ments are very fine, but who made all those worlds, 
beaming so gloriously above us ? Can you tell me 
that?" 

" Rousseau was a bad man," said Napoleon, " a very 
bad man ; he caused the revolution." When invited to 
Rousseau's hermitage to see his cap, table, arm chair, 
&c, he exclaimed, " Bah ! I have no taste for such 
fooleries. Show them to my brother Louis. He is 
worthy of them." 

" It is always the greater number which defeats the 
less," said Napoleon. 

" And yet," said Gohier, " with small armies you have 
frequently defeated large ones." 

" Even then," replied Napoleon, " it was always the 
inferior force which was defeated by the superior. 
When with a small body of men I was in the presence of 
a large one, collecting my little band, I fell like light- 
ning on one of the wings of the hostile army, and 
defeated it. Profiting by the disorder which such an 
event never failed to occasion in their whole line, I re- 
peated the attack, with similar success, in another 
quarter, still with my whole force. I thus beat it in 
detail. The general victory which was the result, was 



22 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

still an example of the truth of the principle, that the 
greater force defeats the lesser." 

" I want more head and less tongue," said Napoleon, 
when filling the varied departments of state. 

It was proposed to make Napoleon Grand Elector, 
with a revenue of one million dollars. " Can you con- 
ceive," he exclaimed, " that a man of the least talent or 
honour would humble himself to accept an office, the 
duties of which are merely to fatten like a pig on so 
many millions a year ? " 

1800. "I did not usurp the crown," said Napoleon 
proudly. " It was lying in the mire. I picked it up. 
The people placed it on my head." 

When Murat proposed for the hand of Napoleon's 
sister Caroline, " Murat ! Murat !" said Napoleon, " he 
is the son of an innkeeper. In the elevated rank to 
which I have attained, I cannot mix my blood with 
his." For a moment he appeared lost in thought, and 
then continued, " Besides, there is no hurry. I shall see 
by and by." 

After the battle of Marengo, when Napoleon heard 
of the death of Desaix, he said, "France has lost one 
of her most able defenders, and I my best friend. No 
one has ever known how much goodness there was 
in Desaix' s heart, and how much genius in his head." 
Then after a short silence, with the tears starting into his 
eyes, he added, " My brave Desaix always wished to die 
thus ; but death should not have been so ready to 
execute his wish." 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 23 

As Napoleon beheld the melancholy procession of the 
wounded, after the battle of Marengo, he exclaimed, 
" We can but regret not being wounded like these un- 
happy men, that we might share their sufferings." 

1801. When a treaty of peace was concluded with 
England, Cambaceres said, " Now we must make a 
treaty of commerce, and remove all subjects of dispute 
between the two countries." 

Napoleon replied, " Not so fast ! The political peace 
is made ; so much the better. Let us enjoy it. As to 
a commercial peace, we will make one if we can. But 
at no price will I sacrifice French industry. I remember 
the misery of 1786." 

" The old privileged classes and the foreign cabi- 
nets," said Napoleon, " hate me worse than they did 
Robespierre." 

" My religion is very simple," Napoleon said to Monge 
one day. " I look at this universe, so vast, so complex, 
so magnificent, and I say to myself that it cannot be the 
result of chance, but the work, however intended, of an 
unknown omnipotent being, as superior to man as the 
universe is superior to the finest machines of human in- * 
vention. Search the philosophers, and you will not find )\ 
a stronger or more decisive argument. But this truth 
is too succinct for man. He wishes to know respecting 
himself and respecting his future destiny, a crowd of 
secrets which the universe does not disclose. Allow re- 
ligion to inform him of that which he feels the need of 
knowing, and respect her disclosures." 

Once Napoleon remarked, "What render me most 
hostile to the establishment of the Catholic worship, 



24 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

are the numerous festivals formally observed. A saint's 
day is a day of idleness, and I do not wish for that. 
People must labour in order to live. I shall consent to 
four holidays during the year, but no more. If the gen- 
tlemen from Rome are not satisfied with that, they may 
take their departure." 

" The French people must be allured back to religion, 
not shocked," Napoleon replied to the Pope's legate, 
who was strenuously urging some of the most arrogant 
assumptions of the Papal Church. " To declare the Ca- 
tholic religion the religion of the state is impossible. 
It is contrary to the ideas prevalent in France, and will 
never be admitted. In place of this declaration we can 
only substitute the avowal of the fact that the Catho- 
lic religion is the religion of the majority of Frenchmen. 
But there must be perfect freedom of opinion. The 
amalgamation of wise and honest men of all parties is 
the principle of my government. I must apply that 
principle to the Church as well as to the State. It is 
the only way of putting an end to the troubles of 
France, and I shall persist in it undeviatingly." 

1802. "France needs nothing so much to promote 
her regeneration," said the First Consul, " as good mo- 
thers." 

"Rewards are not to be conferred upon soldiers 
alone," said Napoleon ; " all sorts of merits are brothers. 
The courage of the president of the Convention resisting 
the populace should be compared with the courage of 
Kleber mounting to the assault of Acre. It is right 
that civil as well as military virtues should have their 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 25 

reward; intelligence has rights before force. Force, 
without intelligence, is nothing." 

In answer to the deputation that met to pass a eulo- 
giuni upon Napoleon's splendid achievements, he replied 
as follows : — 

61 1 receive with sincere gratitude the wish expressed 
by the Tribunate. I desire no other glory than that of 
having completely performed the task imposed upon me. 
I seek no reward but the affection of my fellow citizens. 
I shall be satisfied if they are convinced that my greatest 
misfortunes will always be the evils they may experience ; 
that life is only dear to me as long as I can render ser- 
vices to my country ; and that death will have no bit- 
terness for me, if my last looks can see the happiness of 
the Republic as firmly secured as its glory." 

1804. A young English sailor who had escaped from 
a prison in the interior of France, had succeeded in 
reaching the coast near Boulogne. Here he made a 
little skiff, miserably frail, of the branches and bark of 
trees. This bark he intended to cross the Channel in. 

" Did you really intend," Napoleon said, " to brave 
the terrors of the ocean in so frail a skiff?" 

" Yes," said the young man, " with your permission I 
will embark immediately." 

" Have you a sweetheart at home," asked Napoleon, 
" that you are so desirous to go to your country again?" 

" No," replied the lad, "but I wish to see my mother, 
who is aged, poor, and infirm." 

Napoleon's heart was touched. " You shall see her," 
he answered, " and give her this purse of gold from me. 
She can be no common woman to have brought up so 
good a son." 



26 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

When Napoleon pardoned Polignac, at his wife's ear- 
nest entreaties, he said to her : 

" I am surprised at finding Armand Polignac, my old 
school-companion, plotting against my life. I will, how- 
ever, grant his pardon to the tears of his wife. I only 
hope that this act of weakness on my part may not en- 
courage fresh acts of imprudence. Those princes, 
madame, are most deeply culpable who thus compromise 
the lives of their faithful servants, without partaking 
their perils." 

Bourrienne, conversing with Napoleon one day, re- 
marked that he thought it impossible for him to be- 
come recognized among the old reigning families of 
Europe. 

" If it comes to that," Napoleon answered, " I will 
dethrone them all, and then I shall be the oldest reign- 
ing sovereign." 

When Napoleon accepted the title of emperor, he 
briefly replied in the following terms : — 

" Everything which can contribute to the weal of the 
country is essentially connected with my happiness. I 
accept the title which you believe to be useful to the 
glory of the nation. I submit to the people the sanc- 
tion of the law of hereditary succession. I hope that 
France will never repent the honours with which she 
shall invest my family. At all events, my spirit will no 
longer be with my posterity on that day when it shall 
cease to merit the love and confidence of the Grand 
Nation." 

" Off ! off with these confounded trappings," Napo- 
leon exclaimed after his coronation, throwing mantle 






NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 27 

and robe into various corners of the room. " I never 
passed such tedious hours before." 

1805. As the Emperor and Empress were crossing, 
Napoleon alighted and proceeded some distance on foot, 
when he met a peasant woman. 

" Where are you going in such haste this morning?" 
he asked. 

" To see the Emperor," she replied. " They tell me 
the Emperor is to pass this way." 

" And why do you wish to see him," said Napoleon, 
" what have you done but exchange one tyrant for 
another ? You have had the Bourbons, now you have 
Napoleon." 

" No matter," answered the woman ; " Napoleon is 
our king ; but the Bourbons were the kings of the 
nobles" 

" This," said Napoleon, when he related the anecdote ; 
"this comprehends the whole matter." 

On one occasion a soldier of the consular guard com- 
mitted suicide from a disappointment in love. Napoleon 
issued the following order of the day : — 

" The grenadier Gobain has committed suicide from 
love. He was in other respects an excellent soldier. 
This is the second incident of the kind within a month. 
The First Consul directs it to be inserted in the order- 
book of the guard, that a soldier ought to know how to 
vanquish the pangs and melancholy of the passions ; 
that there is as much true courage in bearing up against 
mental sufferings with constancy, as in remaining firm 
on the wall of a battery. To yield ourselves to grief 
without resistance, or to kill ourselves to escape affliction, 
is to abandon the field of battle before the victory is 
gained." 



28 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

After the battle of Austerlitz, the Emperor Francis 
of Austria visited Napoleon to make negotiations for 
himself and Alexander of Russia. When he had suc- 
ceeded and gone, Napoleon walked hurriedly to and fro 
for a time, and after a short silence he was heard to say, 
" I have acted very unwisely. I could have followed 
up my victory, and taken the whole of the Austrian 
and Russian armies. They are both entirely in my 
power. But — let it be. It will at least cause some less 
tears to be shed." 

When Napoleon declared his intention to send Fre- 
deric the Great's sword to the Invalides, to please the 
old soldiers, General Rapp suggested that he should 
keep it for himself. Napoleon looked at the general, 
with a half-reproachful, half-comical expression, and re- 
plied, " Have I not a sword of my own, Mr. Giver-of- 
Advice ?" 

While at Eylau an orderly officer, sent with despatches 
to the Emperor, was a long time on the road. Napoleon 
sent for him. 

" Sir," said he severely, as the officer entered, " at 
what hour were these despatches placed in your hands ? " 

" At eight o'clock in the evening, sire." 

" And how many leagues had you to ride ? " 

" I do not know precisely, sire." 

" But you ought to know. An orderly officer ought 
to know that. I know. You had twenty-seven miles 
to ride, and you set off at eight o'clock. Look at your 
watch, sir. What o'clock is it now ?" 

" Half-past twelve, sire. The roads were in a ter- 
rible state. In some places the snow blocked up the 
path — " 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 29 

" Poor excuses, sir, poor excuses. Ketire, and await 
my orders." As the officer closed the door he ex- 
claimed,— 

" This cool, leisurely gentlemen, wants stimulating." 

When the answer was ready, the officer was recalled. 

" Set off immediately, sir," said Napoleon, " these des- 
patches must be delivered with the utmost speed. Gen- 
eral Lasalle must receive my orders by three o'clock — 
by three o'clock, you understand, sir ? " 

" Sire," was the reply, " by half-past two the general 
shall have the orders of which I have the honour to be 
the bearer." 

As he was leaving the room, Napoleon called him 
back, and said in his kindest and most winning voice, 
" Tell General Lasalle that it will be agreeable to me 
that you should be the person selected to announce to 
me the success of these movements." 

" To a father," said Napoleon, " who loses his chil- 
dren, victory has no charms. When the heart speaks, 
glory itself is an illusion." 

1807. While at Osterode, Napoleon wrote to the Min- 
ister of the Interior : — 

" An effective mode of encouraging literature would 
be to establish a journal with an enlightened criticism, 
free from that coarse brutality which characterizes the 
existing newspapers, and which is so contrary to the 
true interests of the nation. Journals now never criti- 
cise with the intention of repressing mediocrity, guiding 
inexperience, or encouraging rising merit. All their en- 
deavour is to wither, to destroy. Articles should be 
selected for the journals where reasoning is mingled 
with eloquence, where praise for deserved merit is tern- 



30 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

pered with censure for faults. Merit, however incon- 
siderable, should be sought for and rewarded." 

During the battle at Friedland, a young soldier in- 
stinctively dodged as a cannon ball came whistling 
over his head. Napoleon smiled, and said to him, " My 
friend, if that ball were destined for you it would be 
sure to find you, though you were to burrow a hundred 
feet under ground." 

" My soldiers," said Napoleon to the Czar, " are as 
brave as it is possible to be, but they are too much 
addicted to reasoning on their position. If they had the 
impassible firmness and docility of the 'Russians, the 
world would be too small for their exploits." 

" Gentlemen," said Napoleon, addressing the council 
upon one occasion. " War is not a profession of ease and 
comfort. Quietly seated on your benches here, you 
know it only by reading our bulletins, or hearing of our 
triumphs. You know nothing of our nightly watches, 
our forced marches, the sufferings and privations of 
every kind to which we are exposed. But I do know 
them, for I witness, and sometimes share them." 

On Napoleon's thirty-eighth birthday, a brilliant party 
was assembled at the Tuileries. Taking the arm of his 
faithful friend, Duroc, he wandered about the gardens in 
disguise. A little boy was shouting, Vive l'Empereur ! 
Napoleon took the child in his arms and asked him why 
he shouted so. 

" Because my father and mother taught me to love 
and bless the Emperor," the child answered. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 31 

Napoleon then spoke to the parents, who testified to 
the blessings Napoleon had conferred upon France. The 
next day a present from the Emperor informed them to 
whom they had unbosomed their gratitude. 

One day, when on a visit to the female school he had 
founded at Ecouen, he playfully asked a bright young 
girl, " How many needlefuls of thread does it take to 
make a shirt ? " 

She replied wittily, " One, sire, if it were sufficiently 
long." 

Napoleon was so pleased with the reply, that he gave 
the young lady a gold chain. 

"A woman turns the head of the Autocrat of all the 
Russias," Napoleon said, referring to the Emperor 
Alexander. "All the women in the world would not 
make me lose an hour. Continue to acquaint me of 
everything. Let me know the smallest details. The 
private life of a man is a mirror in which we may see 
many useful lessons reflected." 

1808. Speaking of the German drama, in which tra- 
gedy and comedy, the terrible and the ludicrous, are 
so blended, Napoleon said to Goethe, " I am amazed that 
a profound intellect such as yours should not prefer the 
more distinctly defined forms ! " 

Of the Emperor Alexander, Napoleon wrote, " I am 
pleased with Alexander, as he ought to be with me. 
If he were a woman I believe I should fall in love with 
him." 

The Marquis of St. Simon, who had taken the oath 
of fidelity to king Joseph of Spain, was found fight- 



32 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

ing against his country, and condemned to death. His 
daughter threw herself at Napoleon's feet as he passed. 
" Who is this young girl ? What does she wish ? " 
Napoleon asked. 

" Sire," she replied, " I am the daughter of St. Simon, 
who is condemned to die this night." Then she fell in- 
sensible to the ground. 

Napoleon looked at her pityingly for a moment, and 
then said, " Let the very best care be taken of Mdlle. 
St. Simon. Tell her that her father is pardoned." 

" Those were barbarous times," Napoleon said, "which 
they have the folly to represent to us as heroic, when the 
father sacrificed his children, the wife her husband, the 
subject his sovereign, the soldier his general, and all 
without shame or disguise ! How are times changed 
now. You have seen emperors and kings in my power, 
as well as the capitals of their states, and I exacted 
from them neither ransom nor sacrifice of honours. The 
world has seen how I treated the emperor of Austria 
whom I might have imprisoned ; and that successor of 
Leopold and Henry, who is now more than half in my 
power will not be worse treated on this occasion than on 
the preceding one, notwithstanding that he has attacked 
us with so much perfidy." 

" Napoleon and Josephine, wishing to visit the western 
part of France, went to Etampes. Young villagers, 
headed by the cure* of the place came to present their 
majesties with beautiful roses and excellent grapes. 
" Nature is blessed in this province," said the emperor 
to his wife, as he presented the bouquet to her ; " take 
it, madame, and never forget those whom Providence 
does not forget." 



NALOLEON THE FIRST. 33 

"Providence," said the good cure, "always blesses 
labouring men, because they accomplish the most im- 
portant of his laws." 

"Behold," said the Emperor to Josephine, after 
having thanked the good villagers, " here are men who 
unite flowers and fruits, the useful and the agreeable ; 
they deserve to be happy." 

After the battle of Wagram, Napoleon recognized 
among the dead a colonel who had displeased him. He 
stopped and looked at his mangled body for a moment, 
and then said, " I regret not having told him before 
the battle that I had forgotten everything. 

1809. "Josephine, my own good Josephine," Napoleon 
said to her on the last of November, 1809, "you know 
how I have loved you. It is to you alone that I owe 
the only few moments of happiness I have known in the 
world. Josephine, my destiny is stronger than my will. 
My dearest affections must yield to the welfare of 
France." 

To the members of the imperial family and the officers 
of the empire he said, " The political interests of my 
monarchy and the wishes of my people, which have con- 
stantly guided my actions, require that I should trans- 
mit to an heir, inheriting my love for the people, the 
throne on which Providence has placed me. For many 
years I have lost all hopes of having children by my 
beloved spouse the Empress Josephine. It is this con- 
sideration which induces me to sacrifice the dearest 
affections of my heart to consult the good of my subjects 
only, and to desire the dissolution of our marriage. 
Arrived at the age of forty years, I may reasonably hope 



34 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

to live long enough to rear, in the spirit of my own 
thoughts and disposition, the children with which it may- 
please Providence to bless me. God knows how much 
such a determination has cost my heart. But there is 
no sacrifice too great for my courage, when it is proved 
to be in the interests of France. Far from having any 
cause of complaint, I have nothing to say but in praise 
of the attachment and tenderness of my beloved wife. 
She has embellished fifteen years of my life, and the 
remembrance of them will be for ever engraven on my 
heart. She was crowned by my hand. She shall always 
retain the rank and title of empress. Above all, let her 
never doubt my affection, and always regard me as her 
best and dearest friend." 

1810. One day, at Compiegne, the Duke of Gaeta and 
the Emperor were walking in the park, when the King 
of Rome appeared, in the arms of his nurse, accom- 
panied by his governess the Countess of Montesquieu. 
After caressing his son, he walked on, saying to the 
Duke of Gaeta, "There is a child who would have 
been far happier to have been born a private individual, 
with a moderate income. He is destined to bear a heavy 
burden upon his shoulders." 

1812. " I had," said Napoleon, " a secret instinct that 
Bernadotte was a serpent whom I was nourishing in my 
bosom." 

" Soldiers !" said Napoleon to his troops before Mos- 
cow ; " Soldiers ! the battle is at hand which you have 
so long desired. Henceforth the victory depends upon 
yourselves. It has become necessary, and will give you 
abundance. Conduct yourselves as you did at Auster- 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 35 

litz, Friedland, Witepsk and Smolensk. Let the re- 
motest posterity recount your actions on this day. Let 
your countrymen say of you all, ' He was in the great 
battle under the walls of Moscow.' " 



" Not even the fictions of the burning of Troy/' said 
Napoleon, " though heightened by all the powers of 
poetry, could have equalled the reality of the destruc- 
tion of Moscow." 

As Napoleon left Moscow, he said to Mortier, " Pay 
every attention to the sick and wounded. Sacrifice 
your baggage, everything to them. Let the wagons be 
devoted to their use, and, if necessary, your own saddles. 
This was the course I pursued at Jean d'Acre. The 
officers will first relinquish their horses, then the sub- 
officers, and finally the men. Assemble the generals and 
officers under your command, and make them sensible 
how necessary, in their circumstances, is humanity. The 
Romans bestowed civic crowns on those who preserved 
their citizens. I shall not be less grateful." 

"When Napoleon received despatches from France, 
informing him that a false report of his death had occa- 
sioned an outbreak, he exclaimed, with deep feeling, 
in the presence of his generals : " Does my power, 
then, hang on so slender a thread ? Is my tenure of 
sovereignty so frail that a single person can place it 
in jeopardy ? Truly, my crown is but ill-fitted to my head 
if, in my very capital, the audacious attempt of two or 
three adventurers can make it totter. After twelve years 
of government — after my marriage — after the birth of 
my son — after my oaths — my death would have again 



36 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

plunged the country into the midst of revolutionary 
horrors." Napoleon II. was forgotten. 

"Moscow," said Napoleon, u had fallen into our power. 
We had surmounted every obstacle. The conflagration 
even had in no way lessened the prosperous state of 
our affairs. But the rigour of the winter induced upon 
the army the most frightful calamities. In a few nights 
all was changed. Cruel losses were experienced. They 
would have broken my heart if, under such circum- 
stances, I had been accessible to any other sentiments 
than the welfare of my people. I desire peace. It is 
necessary. On four different occasions, since the rup- 
ture of the peace of Amiens, I have solemnly made offer 
of it to my enemies. But I will never conclude a treaty 
but on terms honourable and suitable to the grandeur of 
my empire." 

After the intention of Ivan Petrowisk to assassinate 
Napoleon at Moscow had been discovered, he said to 
Caulaincourt, " Coulaincourt, my entrance into Mos- 
cow has been marked by gloomy presages. Diabolical 
machinations have been set on foot here. Religious 
fanaticism has been called into action. It is a powerful 
and successful engine when exercised over an uncivilized 
people. In France, if we were to resort to such jug- 
glery, we should be laughed at. In Russia, it raises up 
devoted assassins. This war resembles no other. At 
Eylau, at Friedland, we had to contend only with 
soldiers, here we have to conquer a whole nation." 
After his interview with the Russian assassin, he walked 
several times up and down the room, with his head down 
and his arms crossed on his chest ; then stopping short, 
he exclaimed : " And Murat ! — Murat, without awaiting 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 37 

iny orders, without seeking any counsel save that of his 
own wild brain, has thought fit to take the route to 
Voladimir! Murat is ardent, brilliant in the field of 
battle. He possesses dauntless courage ; but he is to- 
tally devoid of judgment. To know when to stop is 
sometimes the best proof of understanding. Murat has 
no common sense. This fanfaronade has thrown me 
into a most embarrassing dilemma. I cannot call him 
back without proclaiming our weakness, and to send him 
reinforcements would be to recommence the war." 

1813. When Murat deserted Napoleon, the emperor 
wrote to his sister Caroline, Murat's wife, " Your hus- 
band is extremely brave on the field of battle ; but out 
of sight of the enemy he is weaker than a woman. He 
has no moral courage." 

To Murat himself he wrote, " I do not suspect you to 
be one of those who think that the lion is dead ; but if you 
have counted on this, you will soon discover your error. 
Since my departure from Wilna, you have done me all 
the evil you could. Your title of King has turned your 
brain." 

" It is better to have an open enemy than a doubtful 
ally," he said at St. Cloud ; and afterwards, " My great- 
est fault, perhaps, was not having dethroned the king of 
Prussia when I could have done it so easily. After 
Friedland, I could have separated Silesia from Prussia, 
and abandoned this province to Saxony." 

" The system," said Napoleon, " of the enemies of the 
French revolution is icar to the death" 



3? TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

On starting to join his youthful and inexperienced 
army at Erfurt, " I envy," said Napoleon, " I envy the 
lot of the meanest peasant in my dominions. At my 
age he has fulfilled his duties to his country, and he may 
remain at home, enjoying the society of his wife and 
children ; while I — I must fly to the camp and engage in 
the strife of war. Such is my fate." 

" My good Louise," said Napoleon, at the same time, 
" is gentle and submissive. I can trust her. Her love 
and fidelity for me will never fail. In the current 
of events there may arise circumstances which decide 
the fate of an empire. In that case, I hope the daughter 
of the Cassars will be inspired by the spirit of her grand- 
mother, Maria Theresa." 

Of Marshal Bessieres, whose loss deeply affected Na- 
poleon, he wrote to the empress, "Bessieres is justly 
entitled to the name of brave and good. He was distin- 
guished alike for his skill, courage, and prudence ; for 
his great experience in directing cavalry movements, his 
capacity in civil affairs, and his attachment to the em- 
peror. His death on the field of honour is to be envied. 
It was too sudden to be painful. He left a blameless 
reputation — the finest heritage he could bequeath to his 
children. There are few whose loss could have been so 
sensibly felt. The whole French army shares his ma- 
jesty's grief on this melancholy occasion." 

" In my young soldiers," said Napoleon, " I have 
found all the valour of my old companions in arms. 
I have never seen more bravery and devotion during 
the whole twenty years that I have commanded the 
French troops. Had the allied sovereigns and their 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 39 

ministers been present on the field of battle, they would 
have renounced the vain hope of causing the star of 
France to decline." 

On seeing a young Prussian soldier who was pressing 
his flag to his bosom in the agonies of death, Napoleon 
said to his officers, " Gentlemen ! you see that a soldier 
has a sentiment approaching idolatry for his flag. It 
is the object of his worship as a present received from 
the hands of his mistress. Render funeral honours 
at once to this young man. I regret that I do not know 
his name that I might write to his family. Do not take 
away his flag; its silken folds will be an honourable 
shroud for him." 

As Napoleon approached Dresden, he was waited upon 
by the magistrates who had been treacherous to him and 
to their king, and had welcomed the allies. 

" Who are you?'' said Napoleon, severely. 

" Members of the municipality," replied the trembling 
burgomasters. 

"Have you bread for my troops?" inquired Na- 
poleon. 

" Our resources," they answered, " have been entirely 
exhausted by the requisitions of the Russians and Prus- 
sians." 
s~ " Ah !" replied Napoleon, " it is impossible, is it ? I 
know no such word. Get ready bread, meat, and wine. 
You richly deserve to be treated as a conquered people. 
But I forgive all, from regard to your king. He is the 
saviour of your country. You have been already pun- 
ished by the presence of the Russians and Prussians, 
and having been governed by Baron Stein." 



40 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

On being told that a soldier's wound was incurable, 
S* " Try," replied Napoleon ; " it is always well to lose 
\ one less." 

After visiting the tomb of Bessieres, he remarked, 
" That in this pilgrimage to the shrine of the illustrious 
» dead, he had experienced strange presentiments, and, 
as it were, a revelation of his fate* ... It is well, some- 
times, to visit the tomb, there to converse with the 
. dead." 

On the morning of the day that Duroc, the Duke 
of Friuli, died, Napoleon turned to him and said, 
" Duroc, Fortune is determined to take one of us to- 
day." 

" I know," said Napoleon to the Duke of Gaeta, "that 
I shall be reproached with having loved war, and sought 
it through mere ambition. Nevertheless, they will not 
accuse me of avoiding its fatigues, nor of having fled 
from its perils. That at least is something. But who, 
indeed, can hope to obtain justice while living ?" 

" When, however, I am no more it will be allowed that, 
situated as I was, menaced incessantly by powerful coali- 
tions roused and supported by England, I had, in the 
impossibility of avoiding the conflict but two paths open 
to me — either to wait until the enemy should pass our 
frontiers, or to prevent this by attacking him in his own 
territories ; I chose that course which would protect our 
country from the ravages of inevitable war, and which 
would save it in some degree from the expense. If our 
contemporaries persist in reproaching me, posterity, I 
am confident, will do me justice. It will at least be ad- 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 41 

mitted that, in repelling the attacks which we have not 
provoked, I did but fulfil the obligations which nature 
imposes, and not the incitements of an insane ambition. 
< The war in Spain, which was not so directly connected 
with the coalitions provoked by England, may, perhaps, 
be criticised by those who are ignorant of the position in 
which we found ourselves in respect to that govern- 
ment. The conduct of the Spanish court, while I 
was in the heart of Germany, conclusively proved that 
France could place no dependence on Spain. All who 
surrounded me, notwithstanding all that may be said to 
the contrary, were, without exception, of that opinion. 
Circumstances unparalleled in history, made me take the 
initiative in that enterprise ; an unfortunate event, which 
augmented the difficulties, increased still more by the 
shameful and fatal capitulation of Baylen. Neverthe- 
less, it was of extreme importance to withdraw the 
Peninsula from the influence of England, otherwise our 
destruction might be secured whenever we should again 
be called to a distance from home. I was ever hoping 
that the time would come when, surrendering myself to 
the employments of peace, I could prove to France that 
in the cabinet as well as the camp, I lived but for her 
happiness." 

On receiving the news that Austria had declared 
against him, Napoleon said, " It would be a thousand 
times better to perish in battle, in the hour of the 
enemy's triumph, than to submit to the degradation 
sought to be inflicted on me. Defeat even, attended by 
noble-minded perseverance, may leave the respect due 
to adversity. Hence, I prefer to give battle ; for 
should I be conquered, our fate is too intimately blended 
with the true political interests of the majority of our 



42 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

enemies to allow great advantages to be taken. Should 
I be victorious I may save all. I have still ehances in 
my favour, and am far from despairing." 

To Lord Whitworth, when remonstrating with him 
against the rupture of the peace of Amiens : 

" You well know that in all I have done, it has been 
my object to complete the execution of the treaties, and 
to secure the general peace. Now is there, anywhere, 
a state that I am threatening? Look; seek about. 
None, as you well know. If you are jealous of my de- 
signs upon Egypt, my lord, I will endeavour to satisfy 
you. I have thought a great deal about Egypt, and I shall 
still think more if you force me to renew the war ; but 
I will not endanger the peace which we have enjoyed 
for so short a time, for the sake of reconquering a 
nation. The Turkish empire threatens to fall. For my 
part, I shall contribute to uphold it as long as possible. 
But if it fall to pieces I intend that France shall have 
her share. But be assured I shall not hasten events. 
Do you imagine that I deceive myself in regard to the 
power which I exercise at this moment over France and 
Europe ? Now that power is not great enough to allow me 
to venture with impunity upon an aggression, without 
adequate motive. The opinion of Europe would instantly 
turn against me. My political ascendancy would be lost. 
And as for France, it is necessary for me to prove to her 
that war is made upon me, that I have not provoked it, in 
order to inspire her with that enthusiastic ardour which 
I purpose to excite against you if you oblige me to 
fight. All the faults must be yours, and not one of them 
mine. I contemplate, therefore, no aggression. I wanted 
to establish a barrier against those barbarians, by re- 
establishing the kingdom of Poland, and putting Ponia- 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 43 

towski at the head of it as king, but your imbeciles of 
ministers would not consent. A hundred years I shall 
be applauded ; and Europe, especially England, will 
lament that I did not succeed. When they see the 
finest countries in Europe overcome, and a prey to those 
northern barbarians, they will say, 'Napoleon was 
right ! ' " 

At Dresden, Napoleon resolving to disperse a group 
of horsemen who had come to reconnoitre his position, 
sent the following order to the captain of the battery, 
" Throw a dozen bullets at a time into that group, there 
may be some little generals in it." 

" The fate of war," Napoleon said to Murat, " is to be 
exalted in the morning and low enough at night. There 
is but one step from triumph to ruin." 

Of Poniatowski, who died while crossing the Elster, 
Napoleon said, " Poniatowski was a noble man, honour- 
able and brave. Had I succeeded in Eussia, I intended 
to make him king of Poland." 

"From the moment when we decided on the concen- 
tration of power, which could alone save us," said Napo- 
leon, in conversation with Las Cases; "when we deter- 
mined on the unity of doctrines and resources which 
rendered us a mighty nation, the destinies of France 
depended wholly upon the character, the principles and 
the measures of him who had been invested with the 
accidental dictatorship. From that moment the State 
was myself. . . . When I said that France stood 
more in need of me than I of her, this solid truth was 
declared to be mere excess of vanity. I was myself 
the keystone of an edifice totally new, and raised on a 



44 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

slight foundation. Its stability depended on each of my 
battles. . . . The majority blamed my ambition as 
the cause of these wars. But they were not my choice ; 
they were the results of nature and the force of events." 

1814. In a battle with the allies at Montereau, a little 
town sixty miles south-east of Paris, Napoleon was re- 
quested to retire from the field to a place of safety, 
" Courage, my friends," he said, " the ball which is to 
kill me is not yet cast." 

At the close of the last meeting between Napoleon 
and Josephine, he took her hand and looking tenderly at 
* her said, " Josephine, I have been as fortunate as any 
man upon earth. But in this hour, when a storm is 
gathering over me, I have none but you in the wide 
world upon whom I can repose." 

Speaking with Caulaincourt, years afterwards, of the 
scenes in Paris in 1814, before the capitulation, he said, 
tk My head burns ; I am feverish ; if I live a hundred 
years I shall never forget these scenes. They are the 
fixed ideas of my sleepless nights. My reminiscences 
are fearful. They kill me. The rest of the tomb is 
sweet after such sufferings." 

When Caulaincourt informed Napoleon that he was 
required to surrender the crown of France to his son, 
he replied, in a terribly impressive tone, " That is to 
say, they will not treat with me. They mean to drive 
me from the throne which I conquered by my sword. 
They wish to make a Helot of me, an object of deri- 
sion, intended for an example to those who, by their 
genius and superior talent alone, command men, and 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 45 

make lawful kings tremble on their worm-eaten thrones. 
. . . When I was happy I thought I knew men, but it 
was fated that I should know them in misfortune 
only." 

\ " Restore the Bourbons I" Napoleon exclaimed, in an- 
other conversation ; " it is not merely madness, but it 
shows a desire to inflict every kind of misery on the 
country. Is it true, really, that such an idea is seriously 
entertained ? . . . The Senate cannot surely consent to 
see a Bourbon on the throne. Setting aside the baseness 
of agreeing to such an arrangement, what place could be 
assigned to the Senate in a court from which they or their 
fathers before them dragged Louis XVI. to the scaffold ? 
As for me, I was a new man, unsullied by the vices of 
the French revolution. I had no motive for revenge. 
I had everything to reconstruct. I should never have 
dared to sit on the vacant throne of France, had not my 
brow been bound with laurels. The French people ele- 
vated me, because I had executed with them, and for 
them, great and noble works. But the Bourbons ! What 
have they done for France ? What proportion of the 
victories, of the glory, or prosperity of France, belongs 
to them ? Tranquillity will never be insured to the 
Bourbons in Paris. Remember my prophecy, Caulain- 
court." 

Napoleon's abdication was contained in the following 
terms : — 

" The allied powers having proclaimed that the Em- 
peror Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the re-estab- 
lishment of peace, the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his 
oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the 
throne, to quit France, and life itself, for the good of 



46 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

the country ; but without prejudice to the rights of his 
son, to those of the empress as regent, and to the main- 
tenance of the laws of the empire. 

" Given at our palace at Fontainebleau, the 4th of 
April, 18 14." 

On the 6th of April, this was altered as follows : — 
" The allied sovereigns having declared that the Em- 
peror Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-estab- 
lishment of a general peace in Europe, the Emperor 
Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, 
for himself and his hei?*s the throne of France and Italy ; 
and that there is no personal sacrifice, not even that of 
life itself, which he is not willing to make for the in- 
terests of France." 

" Caulaincourt," Napoleon said, " this last experience 
of mankind has irrevocably banished from me those 
illusions which help to counteract the cares of sove- 
reignty. I have no longer any faith in patriotism : it 
is a mere empty word expressing a noble idea. The 
love of country is the love of one's self, of one's position, 
of one's personal interest. . . Interest! that miserable 
motive is now paramount over every other in France. 

" There is no longer faith or integrity in the bond 
which unites the nation to its sovereign. France is 
verging towards her decline. . . . The future is pregnant 

with disasters Kings are treading on volcanic 

ground The Bourbons have stripped from the 

crown .the halo with which I sought to encircle it. . . . 
How short-sighted. . . . They cannot perceive that by 
disavowing our glory and our conquests — by deprecia- 
ting the great and brilliant works which have elevated 
the throne they are destroying its illusions. I have ele- 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 47 

vated, not degraded royalty. I have made it great and 
powerful. I have presented it under a new and favour- 
able aspect, to a people to whom it had become ob- 
noxious — I had collected round the national throne 
everything that could fix popular admiration. My suc- 
cessors will not feel the value of these attractions. They 
will imprudently strip off the velvet and gold, and show 
that the throne is only a few deal planks." 

If Caulaincourt is to be credited, Napoleon endea- 
voured to commit suicide by taking poison, at Fon- 
tainebleau, after his abdication. Caulaincourt was called 
in the middle of the night to see Napoleon, whom he 
found in a frightfully convulsed condition, attended by 
Ivan, who was vainly endeavouring to produce vomiting 
by making his patient take hot tea. Napoleon, however, 
pushed the cup aside, and said, " I am dying, Caulain- 
court — to you I commend my wife and son ; defend my 
memory — I can no longer support life." After again 
and again refusing the cup, he exclaimed, " Leave me 
alone ! leave me alone !" Finally, Caulaincourt and Ivan 
prevailed upon him to drink several times, and repeated 
vomitings brought some relief. During the time that he 
slept after, Constant told Caulaincourt that he heard 
a noise in the emperor's chamber, and upon going to 
him, found him in violent convulsions, with his face 
buried in the pillow to stifle his cries. Constant called 
Ivan, whom, when the emperor saw, he said, " Ivan, the 
dose was not strong enough." 

" Then it was, 1 " says Caulaincourt, " that they acquired 
the sad certainty that he had taken poison." 

" Suicide," Napoleon said to Caulaincourt, afterwards, 
" is sometimes committed for love. What folly ! Some- 



48 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

times for the loss of fortune. There it is cowardice. 
Another cannot live after he has been disgraced. What 
weakness ! But," he concluded, egotistically, " to sur- 
vive the loss of empire — to be exposed to the insults of 
one's contemporaries — that is true courage." 

" There is something harder to bear than the reverses 
of fortune," he continued, presently. "Do you know 
what pierces the heart most deeply ? it is the ingratitude 
of man. I am tired of life. Death is rest. What I have 
suffered during the last twenty years cannot be under- 
stood. . . . Caulaincourt, there have been moments in 
these last days when I thought I should go mad — when 
I have felt such a devouring heat here. Madness is the 
last stage of human degradation. It is the abdication of 
humanity. Better to die a thousand times. In resigning 
myself to life, I accept nameless tortures. No matter, I 
will endure them." 

Before his departure for Elba, Napoleon, bidding 
farewell to his troops, said, " Generals, officers, and 
soldiers of my Old Guard, I bid you farewell. For five 
and twenty years I have ever found you in the path of 
honour and glory. In these last days, as in our days of 
prosperity, you have never ceased to be models of 
fidelity and courage. Europe has armed against us. Our 
cause never could have been lost with such men as you. 
We could have maintained a civil war for years. But it 
would have made our country unhappy. I leave you. 
But, my friends, be faithful to the new sovereign whom 
France has accepted. After embracing General Petit, 
who commanded the " Old Guard," Napoleon asked for 
the eagle ; when a grenadier advanced with it, he kissed 
its silver beak, pressed it to his heart, and said, with a 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 49 

faltering voice, " Dear Eagle, may this last embrace vi- 
brate for ever in the hearts of all my faithful soldiers ! 
Farewell once more, my old companions — farewell ! " 

From Elba, Napoleon wrote to Caulaincourt, " It is 
less difficult than people think to accustom one's self 
to a life of retirement and peace, when one possesses 
within one's self some resource to make time useful. I 
employ myself much in my study, and when I go out I 
enjoy some happy moments in seeing again my brave 
grenadiers. Here my reflections are not continually 
coming in contact with painful recollections." 

Again he wrote : " The lot of a dethroned king, who 
has been born a king and nothing more, must be dread- 
ful. The pomp of the throne, the gewgaws which sur- 
round him from his cradle, and which accompany him 
step by step throughout his life, become a necessary con- 
dition of his existence. For me, always a soldier, and a 
sovereign by chance, the luxuries of royalty proved a 
heavy charge. The toils of war and a rough camp life 
are best suited to my organization, my habits, and my 
tastes. Of all my past grandeur, I alone regret my 
soldiers ; and of all the jewels of my crown, the French 
uniforms which they allowed me to take with me are the 
most precious I have preserved." * 



* " Methinks 
There's something lonely in the state of kings ! 
None dare come near them. As the eagle, poised 
Upon his sightless throne in upper air, 
Scares gentler birds away, so kings (cut off 
From human kindred, by the curse of power) 
E 



50 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

An American, in "Napoleon his own Historian," gives 
the following account of an interview with Napoleon, at 
Elba :— 

" You come from France ? " he said. 

" Yes, sire." 

" You must have found Paris extremely embel- 
lished?" 

" The public monuments are magnificent." 

" I had projected many others. My purpose was to 
spend four hundred millions in doing honour to military 
courage. Paris would have had temples superior to those 
of Rome. I hope what I had begun will be continued. 
I finished the Louvre. The king ought to finish the 
Temple of Glory. Is the king beloved?" 

" Yes, sire." 

" He is a man of some talents ; I always had a great 
esteem for him. He has not an easy task to perform; I 
exhorted my soldiers to be faithful to him. A civil war 
in France is above all things to be deprecated ; it could 
only take place in my favour. I renounced the throne 
voluntarily. I would gladly have preserved it for my 
son ; but a regency was very difficult after all that had 
passed. It could have had no stability but in the case 



Are shunned and live alone. Who dare come near 

The region of a king ? There is a wall 

(Invisible, indeed, yet strong and high,) 

Which fences kings from close approach of men. 

They live respected — oh, that cheat, { respect ' ! — 

As if the homage which abases others 

Could comfort him that has 't. Alone — alone ! 

Prisoned in ermine and a velvet chair, 

Shut out from hope (the height being all attained), 

Tet touched by terrors, — what can soothe a king ? " 

Barry Cornwall. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 51 

of my having fallen in battle. — Did you see the Emperor 
Alexander ? " 

" Once, at the theatre." 

" He must have been received with acclamations ; he 
has conducted himself very well with regard to the 
French. He has great qualities, he is good and gene- 
rous ; but these are not sufficient to command ; he loses 
himself in little things. I have been much in the wrong 
with regard to him. My war was unjust; but I was 
obliged to undertake it, or give up the continental 
system. — Is it true that my museum has not been 
touched?" 

" I understood that nothing had been taken away, 
and that this was entirely owing to the Emperor Alex- 
ander." 

" Such generosity is admirable ; in his place, I should 
not have been so forbearing ; there is true greatness in 
such a procedure. However, as a man in his situation 
should always do something extraordinary, he must 
either take all or leave all ; and to take all would per- 
haps have been difficult with the French. What do they 
think of the senate in France ? " 

" The ancient members are not held in much esteem." 

" The king ought to discard them all." 

Here Napoleon's countenance, which had hitherto been 
mild and pleasant, assumed an expression of anger. He 
added, " I wished to preserve my authority only to 
punish them ; those cringing courtiers are guilty of all 
the ills which I have brought upon France. They never 
opposed my will; fear of losing their places rendered 
them more supple and despicable than were the Roman 
senate under their emperors. Their speakers thought 
of nothing but inventing new phrases of adulation in 
addressing me, and approving the wisdom of my decrees. 



52 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

They were loaded with my favours, and they betrayed 
me from fear for themselves, not in the idea of saving 
France. Those wretches are shameless enough to do 
anything which they think is for their personal interest ; 
they will betray the king as easily as they betrayed me, 
if they believe that anything is to be gained by it. 
With the exception of two or three of the ancient mili- 
tary, the king ought to sweep the halls of the Luxem- 
bourg free of these reptiles. Their servility made me a 
despot. If some of the senators had opposed my will, I 
should have discarded them, 'tis true ; but their energy 
would have saved France from a torrent of evil. I 
should have been afraid of new opposition, and looked 
more carefully to what I was about. If they had some- 
times opposed me, I should have had less contempt for 
mankind. I feel that I possess such qualities as might 
have rendered France happy ; but then I ought to have 
had about me men of some firmness, not so thirstv of 
favour and fortune. For ten years I found nothing but 
courtiers, and was surrounded by nothing but flatteries. 
What man could resist this ? I will say confidently, not 
one. Every year of my reign I saw more and more 
plainly, that the harsher the treatment men received the 
greater was their submission and devotion. My despot- 
ism then increased in proportion to my contempt for 
mankind. Those who first shunned places at my court, 
afterwards were the most forward to solicit them. My 
antechamber was filled with the ancient French noblesse; 
I saw nothing but courtiers around me, not a single man. 
The French, so brave in the field, have no civic cou- 
rage." 

On another occasion, Napoleon said to this same gen- 
tleman, "I committed three great political faults. I 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 53 

ought to have made peace with England in abandoning 
Spain ; I ought to have restored the kingdom of Poland, 
and not have gone to Moscow ; I ought to have made 
peace at Dresden, giving up Hamburgh, and some other 
countries that were useless to me." 

1815. After the battle of Waterloo, the Emperor re- 
turned to the Elysee, where Caulaincourt awaited him. 
" He endeavoured," says Caulaincourt, " to give vent to 
the emotions of his heart, but his oppressed respiration 
permitted him to articulate only broken sentences." 

" The army," he said, " has performed prodigies of 
valour . . . inconceivable efforts. . . . What troops! 
Ney behaved like a madman. . . . He caused my cavalry 
to be cut to pieces. . . . All has been sacrificed. . . . 
I am ill and exhausted. ... I must lie down for an 
hour or two. . . . My head burns. ... I must take a 
bath." 

After his bath, " It is grievous," he continued, " to 
think that we should have been overcome after so many 
heroic efforts. My most brilliant victories do not shed 
more glory on the French army than the defeat of Mont 
St. Jean. . . . Our troops have not been beaten ; they 
have been sacrificed— massacred by overwhelming num- 
bers. . . . My guards suffered themselves to be cut to 
pieces without asking for quarter. ... I wished to have 
died with them, but they exclaimed, ; Withdraw, with- 
draw, you see that Death is resolved to spare your 
majesty.' And opening their ranks, my old grenadiers 
screened me from the carnage, forming around me a 
rampart of their bodies. . . . My brave, my admirable 
guard, has been destroyed . . . and I have not perished 
with them." 

" I had," resumed the emperor, " conceived a bold 



54 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

manoeuvre, with the view of preventing the junction of 
the two hostile armies. I had combined my cavalry into 
a single corps of twenty thousand men, and ordered it to 
rush into the midst of the Prussian cantonments. This 
bold attack, which was executed on the 14th, with the 
rapidity of lightning, seemed likely to decide the fate of 
the campaign. French troops never calculate the num- 
ber of an enemy's force. . . . They care not how they 
shed their blood in success. . . . They are invincible 
in prosperity ; but I was compelled to change my plan. 
Instead of making an unexpected attack, I found myself 
obliged to engage in a regular battle, having opposed to 
me two combined armies, supported by immense reserves. 
The enemy's forces quadrupled the number of ours. I 
had calculated all the disadvantages of a regular battle. 
The infamous desertion of Bourmont forced me to 
change all my arrangements. To pass over to the enemy 
on the eve of a battle ! Atrocious ! The blood of his 
fellow-countrymen be on his head ! The maledictions of 
France will pursue him." 

" Sire," .observed Caulaincourt, "how unfortunate 
that you did not follow your own impulse ; on a former 
occasion you rejected that man." 

" Oh ! this baseness is incredible. The annals of the 
French army offer no precedent for such a crime. 
Jomini was not a Frenchman. The consequences of this 
defection have been most disastrous. It has created 
despondency in* the minds of those who witnessed the 
paralyzing effects of previous treasons. My orders were 
not properly understood, and consequently there was 
some degree of hesitation in executing them. At one 
time Grouchy was too late ; at another time, Ney was 
carried away by his enthusiasm and intrepidity. He 
exposed himself to danger like any common soldier, 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 55 

without looking either before or behind him ; and his 
troops were sacrificed without any necessity. It is de- 
plorable to think of it ! Our army performed prodigies 
of valour, and yet we have lost the battle. Generals, 
marshals, all fought gloriously ; but, nevertheless, an in- 
describable uncertainty and anxiety pervaded the com- 
manders of the army. There was no unity, no precision, 
in the movements — and," he added, with painful emo- 
tion, " I have been assured that cries of Sauve qui pent 
were uttered. I cannot believe this. What I suffered, 
Caulaincourt, was worse than the tortures of Fontaine- 
bleau. I feel that I have had my death wound. The 
blow I received at Waterloo is mortal !" 



When Caulaincourt visited Napoleon at Malmaison, 
he said to him : — 

" Well, Caulaincourt ! this is truly draining the cup 
of misfortune to the dregs. I wished to defer my 
departure only for the sake of fighting at the head of 
the army. I wished only to contribute my aid in repel- 
ling the enemy. I have had enough of sovereignty. I 
want no more of it, I want no more of it." (He re- 
peated these words with marked vehemence). "I am 
no longer a sovereign, but I am still a soldier ! When 
I heard the cannon roar — when I reflected that my 
troops were without a leader — that they were to endure 
the humiliation of a defeat without having fought — my 
blood boiled with indignation. All I wished for was a 
glorious death amidst my brave troops. But my co- 
operation would have defeated the schemes of traitors, 
France has been sold. She has been surrendered with- 
out a blow being struck in her defence. Thirty-two 
millions of men have been made to bow their heads to 



56 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

an arrogant conqueror, without disputing the victory. 
Such a spectacle as France now presents is not to be 
found in the history of any other nation. What has 
France become in the hands of the imbecile government 
which has ruled her for the last fifteen months? Is she 
any longer the nation unequalled in the world ? . . . 
In 1814, honest men might justly say, all is lost except 
honour — except national dignity. Let them now bow 
down their heads with mortification, for now all — all is 
lost. . . . And that villain Fouche imagines that I 
would resume the sovereignty in the degradation to 
which it is now reduced. Never — never. The place 
that is assigned to the sovereign is no longer tenable. I 
am disgusted alike with men and things, and I am 
anxious only to enjoy repose. I am utterly indifferent 
about my future fate — and I endure life, without attach- 
ing myself to it by any alluring chimeras. I carry with 
me from France recollections which will constitute at 
once the charm and torment of the remainder of my 
days. A bitter and incurable regret must ever be con- 
nected with this last phase of my singular career. Alas ! 
what will come of the army— my brave, my unparalleled 
army ! The reaction will be terrible, Caulaincourt. The 
army will be doomed to expiate its fidelity to my cause, 
its heroic resistance at Waterloo. Waterloo ! What 
horrible recollections are connected with that name ! 
O ! if you had seen that handful of heroes, closely pressed 
one upon another, resisting immense masses of the ene- 
my, not to defend their lives, but to meet death on the 
field of battle where they could not conquer ! The En- 
glish stood amazed at sight of this desperate heroism, 
and weary of the carnage, they implored the martyrs 
to surrender. This merciful summons was answered 
by the sublime cry, 'Ze garde meurt, et ne se rend 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 57 

pas' * The Imperial guard has immortalized the French 
people and the empire ! " 

When the crowd around the Champs Elysees was 
tumultuous in its acclamations, Napoleon turned to 
Benjamin Constant, who had urged him to arm the 
masses, and said, " These poor people who now come 
to condole with me in my reverses, I have not loaded 
with honours and riches. I leave them poor as I found 
them. But the instinct of country enlightens them. 
The voice of the nation speaks through their mouths. I 
have but to utter a word and the Chamber of Deputies 
would exist no longer. But no ! not a single life shall 
be sacrificed to me. I have not come from Elba to 
inundate Paris with blood." 

One morning, at Paris, while Napoleon was seated in 
his cabinet, a child entered the room, and presented him 
coffee and refreshments on a tray. Napoleon did not at 
first notice his entrance. " Eat, sire," the child at length 
said, " it will do you good." 

The Emperor raised his eyes and said, " You come 
from the village Gonesse, do you not?" 

"No, sire," the child replied, "I come from Pierre - 
fite." 



* This phrase, attributed to Cambronne, who was made pri- 
soner at Waterloo, he vehemently denied. It was invented by 
a celebrated inventor of bon mots, Rougemont, and appeared in 
the " Iudependant" two days after the battle. Cambronne, 
when pressed by a lady to repeat the words he really did use, 
replied, i( Ma foi, Madame, je ne sais pas au juste ce que j'ai dit 
a l'officier Anglais qui me criait de me rendre : mais ce qui est 
certain est qu'il comprenait le Francais, et qu ? il m'a repondu 
mange." 



58 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" Where your parents," Napoleon added, " have a cot- 
tage and some acres of land ? " 
" Yes, sire," the child replied. 
" There," exclaimed the Emperor, " is true happiness." 

" Frenchmen ! In commencing the war for the uphold- 
ing of national independence, I relied on the union of all 
efforts and all wills, and upon the concurrence of all the 
national authorities. I had every reason to expect suc- 
cess, and I brave the declaration of the allies against 
me. Circumstances appear to me changed. I offer my- 
self in sacrifice to the hatred of the enemies of France. 
May they prove sincere in their declarations, and hate 
only my person ! My political life is at an end, and I 
proclaim my son, under the title of Napoleon II. 
Emperor of the French. The present ministers will 
provisionally form the council of government. The in- 
terest I feel in my son prompts me to request the Cham- 
bers to organize, without delay, the regency by a law. 
Let all unite for the public safety, and to remain an in- 
dependent nation. Napoleon." 

" My son will yet reign over France," said Napo- 
leon, " but his time has not yet arrived." 

" The English government," said Napoleon to Fleury, 
" has no magnanimity ; the nation, however, is great, 
noble, generous. It will treat me as I ought to be 
treated. But after all, what can I do ? Would you have 
me allow myself to be taken like a child, by Wellington, 
to adorn his triumph in London? I have only one 
course to adopt, that of retiring from the scene. Destiny 
will do the rest. Certainly I could die. I could say 
like Hannibal, 4 Let me deliver them from the terror 
with which I inspire them.' But suicides must be left 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 59 

to weak heads and souls badly tempered. As for me, 
whatever may be my destiny, I shall not hasten my 
natural end by a single moment." 

On board the Bellerophon, Napoleon said, "What I 
most admire is the silence and orderly conduct of the 
men. On board a French ship, every one calls out and 
gives orders, gabbling like so many geese." 

On his first introduction to the Briars, and Mr. 
and Mrs. Balcombe, who lived there, he found their 
two daughters, aged respectively thirteen and fifteen 
years, taking a lesson in geography. He sat down at 
the table with them and began talking gaily to them. 
He took up a book and asked the younger child, " Do 
you learn geography?" 

" Yes," she answered, " it is very tiresome, but mam- 
ma wishes it." 

" You must obey your parents," said the Emperor. 
" Do you know your Capitals ?" 

" Oh yes. I have just learnt them." 

"And what is the Capital of Kussia?" asked the 
Emperor. 

She blushed a little, and answered, " It was Moscow, 
once."" 

" Why once ? " proceeded her questioner. 

" Because it is St. Petersburgh now." 

"And why so?" 

She blushed still more, and answered, after a little 
hesitation, " Because Moscow is burnt." 

" And who burnt it ? " 

This question completely disconcerted her, she looked 
down and murmured that she did not know. General 
Bertrand burst into a long laugh. The Emperor laughed 
also, and said : 



60 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" See how they teach children ! I am certain that in 
this book, which I cannot read, (it was in English) I am 
represented burning Moscow, as Nero burnt Rome." 

" The idea of imprisonment at St. Helena is perfectly- 
horrible. To be enchained for life on an island within 
the tropics, at an immense distance from any land, cut 
off from all communication with the world, and every- 
thing it contains that is dear to me. It is worse than 
Tamerlane's iron cage. I would prefer being delivered 
up to the Bourbons. They style me General! They 
might as well call me Archbishop. I was head of the 
Church as well as of the army. Had they confined me in 
the Tower of London, or in one of the fortresses of 
England, though not what I had hoped from the gene- 
rosity of the English people, I should not have had so 
much cause for complaint. But to banish me to an island 
within the tropics ! They might as well sign my death- 
warrant at once. It is impossible that a man of my habit 
of body can exist long in such a climate." 

" Occupation is the scythe of time," Napoleon said 
to Las Cases. " A man must fulfil his destinies. This 
is my grand doctrine. Very well ! Let mine be accom- 
plished." 

Napoleon wrote the following protest from the Belle- 
rophon, August 4th, 1815 : 

" I hereby solemnly protest in the face of Heaven and 
mankind, against the violence that is done me, and the 
violation of my most sacred rights, in disposing of my per- 
son and liberty. I voluntarily came on board the Bellero- 
phon ; I am not the prisoner, I am the guest of England. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 61 

I came at the instigation of the captain himself, who said 
he had orders from the government to receive and con- 
vey me to England, together with my suite, if agreeable 
to me. I came forward with confidence to place myself 
under the protection of the laws of England. Once on 
board the Bellerophon, I was entitled to the hospitality 
of the British people. If the government, in giving 
the captain of the Bellerophon orders to receive me, 
only wished to lay a snare, it has forfeited its honour 
and disgraced its flag. If this act be consummated, it 
will be in vain for the English to talk henceforth of their 
sincerity, their laws, and liberties. British faith will 
have been lost in the hospitality of the Bellerophon. I 
appeal to history. It will say that an enemy, who made 
war for twenty years against the English people, came 
spontaneously, in the hour of misfortune, to seek an asy- 
lum under their laws. What more striking proof could 
he give of his esteem and confidence ? But how did 
England reply to such an act of magnanimity ? It pre- 
tended to hold out a hospitable hand to the enemy, and 
on giving himself up with confidence, he was immolated. 

" Napoleon." 

"They may call me what they please ; they cannot pre- 
vent me from being myself''' 

As the Northumberland passed France on its way 
to St. Helena, Napoleon uncovered his head, bowed to 
the distant hills, and 'said, with deep emotion, " Land 
of the brave, I salute thee! Farewell! France, fare- 
well!" 

1816. Napoleon hated flogging. "I raised many 
thousands of Italians," said he, " who fought with a 



62 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

bravery equal to that of the French, and who did not 
desert me in danger. What was the cause ? I abolished 
flogging. Instead of the lash I introduced the stimulus 
of honour. Whatever debases a man cannot be service- 
able. What sense of honour can a man have who is 
flogged before his comrades ? When a soldier has been 
debased by stripes he cares little for his own reputation, 
or the honour of his country. After an action, I assem- 
bled the officers and soldiers, and inquired who had 
proved themselves heroes. Such as were able to read 
and write I promoted. Those who were not I ordered 
to study five hours a day, until they had learned a suffi- 
ciency, and then promoted them. Thus I substituted 
honour and emulation for terror and the lash." 



Napoleon was a fatalist.* He never feared death, be- 
cause he believed he should not die until his appointed 
time came. 

" I am," said he, " the creature of circumstances. I 
do but go where events point out the way. I do not 
give myself any uneasiness about death. When a man's 
time is come he must go." 

" Are you a Predestinarian ? " inquired O'Meara. 

" As much so as the Turks are," Napoleon replied. 
" I have been always so. When destiny wills it must 
be obeyed. I will give you an example. At the siege 
of Toulon I noticed an officer who was very careful of 



* He was such a firm believer in fate, that it is said he con- 
tinually carried about with him and consulted a u Book of 
Fate," translated by his orders from a MS. r he met with in 

Egypt. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 63 

himself, instead of showing a courageous example to his 
men. ' Mr. Officer,' said I, ' come out and observe the 
effect of jour shot. You know not whether your guns 
are well directed or not.' Very reluctantly he came 
outside the parapet to the place where I was standing. 
Wishing to expose as little of his body as possible, he 
stooped down and partially sheltered himself behind the 
parapet, and looked under my arm. Just then a shot 
came close to me, low down, and knocked him to pieces. 
Now if this man had stood upright he would have been 
safe, as the ball would have passed between us, and hurt 
neither." * 

One day, Napoleon, conversing with Las Cases, asked 
him, " Were you a gamester ? " 

" Alas, sire," Las Cases replied, " I must confess that 
I was, but only occasionally." 

" I am glad," replied Napoleon, " that I knew nothing 
of it at the time. You would have been ruined in my 
esteem. A gamester was sure to lose my confidence. I 
placed no more trust in him." 



* " Madame de Bourrienne's account of this is far from 
charming. According to her account the young officer in ques- 
tion had been recently married, and his young wife with tears 
had entreated Napoleon to dispense with his services on that 
day. " The general," says Madame de Bourrienne, " was inex- 
orable, as he himself told us with savage exultation. The 
young officer appears to have had a presentiment of his fate. 
He was stationed beside the general, and Bonaparte called out 
to him, ' Take care, there is a bomb shell coming.' Instead of 
moving to one side the officer stooped, and was cut completely 
in two. u Bonaparte," concludes Madame de Bourrienne, 
" laughed loudly while he described the event with horrible 
minuteness." 



64 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

|T* Some one read an account of the battle of Lodi, in 
J which it was stated that Napoleon crossed the bridge 
first, and that Lannes passed after him. 

" Before me ! before me ! " Napoleon exclaimed. 
I " Lannes passed first, I only followed him. I must cor- 
| rect that error on the spot." 

Napoleon's handwriting was of a most unintelligible 
character. 

"Do you write orthographically ?" he asked his aman- 
uensis one day at St. Helena. " A man occupied with 
public business cannot attend to orthography. His ideas 
must flow faster than his hand can trace. He has only 
time to place his points. He must compress words into 
letters, and phrases into words, and let the scribes make 
it out afterwards." 

" The rapid succession of your victories," said Las 
Cases to Napoleon, " must have been a source of great 
delight to you." 

" By no means," Napoleon replied ; " those who think 
so know nothing of the peril of our situation. The 
victory of to-day was instantly forgotten in preparation 
for the battle which was to be fought on the morrow. 
The aspect of danger was continually before me. I 
enjoyed not one moment of repose." 

" Tents," said Napoleon, " are unhealthy ; it is much 
better for the soldier to bivouac in the open air, for 
then he can build a fire and sleep with warm feet. 
Tents are necessary only for the general officers, who are 
obliged to read and consult their maps." 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 65 

At St. Helena, when Napoleon had time to remember 
his early youth, he said to Montholon : — 

"What recollections of childhood crowd upon ray 
memory. I am carried back to my first impressions of 
the life of man. It seems to me always, in these mo- 
ments of calm, that I should have been the happiest man 
in the world with an income of twenty-five hundred 
dollars a year, living as the father of a family with my 
wife and son, in our old house at Ajaccio ... I 
still remember with emotion the most minute details of 
a journey in which I accompanied Paoli. More than five 
hundred of us, young persons of the first families in the 
island, formed his body guard. I felt proud of walking 
by his side, and he appeared to take pleasure in pointing 
out to me the passes of our mountains which had been 
witnesses of the heroic struggle of our countrymen for 
independence. The impression made upon me still 
vibrates in my heart. . . . Religion is the dominion 
of the soul. It is the hope of life, the anchor of safety, 
the deliverance from evil. What a service has Chris- 
tianity rendered to humanity ! what a power would it 
still have did its ministers comprehend their mission ! " 

To Las Cases Napoleon said, after reading an account 
of his sayings, in which the writer had made him speak 
with too much goodness. " What is popularity ? Who 
was more popular than the unfortunate Louis XVI ? 
Nevertheless, what was his fate? He has perished. 
One must determine to serve the people and not please 
them ; the best way to gain them is to do them good; 
nothing is more dangerous than to flatter them; if they 
do not have all they want afterwards they fret themselves 
and think you have broken your word to them. The 
first duty of a prince, undoubtedly, is to do what the 



66 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

people wish, but the people do not always wish what they 
say they do ; their will, their wants should be found not 
so much in the mouth as in the heart of the prince. 

" All systems can doubtless maintain themselves, that 
of complaisance as well as that of severity ; each has its 
advantages and its inconveniences ; everything is equal in 
this world. If you ask me what my severe expressions 
have saved me from, I answer, They have spared me 
from doing what I threatened. What wrong, after all, 
have I done ? What blood have I shed ? Who can 
boast that he would have done better, in the circum- 
stances in which I was placed ? What period of history, 
with similar results to mine, shows such innocent re- 
sults ? For what do they reproach me ? They have 
seized the records of my administration, they have re- 
mained masters of my papers, and what have they 
brought to light ? All sovereigns in my position, in the 
midst of factions, troubles, and conspiracies, are sur- 
rounded with murders and executions, are they not ? 
Yet see the sudden calm of France under me." 

After dinner, says Las Cases, he turned to me and 
said suddenly, " Where do you think Madame Las 
Cases is at this moment ? " 

" Alas, sire," I answered, " God knows." 

" She is at Paris," he continued, " to-day is Tuesday, 
it is nine o'clock, she is at the Opera." 

" No, sire," I replied, cc she is too good a woman to go 
sight-seeing while I am here." 

" Just like husbands," said Napoleon, laughing, " al- 
ways confident and credulous." 

Then he turned to General Gourgaud and teased him 
in the same way about his mother and sister. Gourgaud 
became sad, and the tears sprung to his eyes. Napoleon 
looking round at him, said, in a charming manner, " Is it 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 67 

not wicked of me, very barbarous, very tyrannical, to 
touch such tender chords thus ? " 

" Poor France," said Napoleon, " what will be thy des- 
tiny ? What has become of thy glory ? What will be thy 
hopes, thy resources ? A king without system, uncertain, 
using half-measures, when they should be positive and 
extreme ; a shade of ministry when so much force and 
talent is required, division in the royal house when 
unanimity is necessary; a prince of the blood at the 
head of a wholly national opposition. What subjects 
for troubles, what combinations for the future, who 
can guess the denouement ? . . . Louis XVIII. last 
year could identify himself with the nation, now he has 
no choice, he must adopt the principles of his party, he 
can no longer use any but the regime of his fathers. On 
the other side the allies have not better understood 
their interests ; it was necessary to weaken France, but 
not to drive it to desperation, it was necessary to take ter- 
ritory from it, but not to impose contributions upon it. 
That is not the way to treat twenty- eight millions of 
men. The French, at least, ought to repurchase the loss 
of glory by peace and happiness. In imposing humilia- 
tions, bread must be given ; it was necessary to try to re- 
duce this great body to stagnation." 

Colonel Wilks, remarking to Napoleon that almost 
every soldier in the French army showed the germs 
of an officer, he replied : — 

" That is one of the great consequences of the con- 
scription ; it made the French army superior to any of 
its predecessors. It was," he continued, " an institution 
eminently national, and already far advanced in our man- 
ners ; the mothers only were afflicted by it, and the time 



6S TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

should have come when a girl would not have cared for 
a man who was not willing to pay his debt to his country. 
And it is in this state alone," added he, " that the con- 
scription would have acquired the last measure of its 
advantages, when it has become no longer a constraint 
and a task, but a point of honour of which every one is 
jealous; then only a nation is grand and glorious and 
strong; then its existence can defy reverses, invasions, 
and time. 

" Finally," he continued, " it is true that there is no- 
thing the French will not do at the appearance of 
danger, it seems to give them spirit, it is their Gallic 
heritage. Yalour, and a love of glory are an instinct 
with the French, a sort of sixth sense. How many times 
in the heat of battles I have stopped to look at my young 
conscripts throwing themselves into the thick of the 
fight for the first time, honour and courage coming from 
all their pores." 

Napoleon was not at all satisfied with the histories of 
France, " Velly," he said, " was full of words and empty 
of things, and those who continued his work are still 
worse." He knew Gamier, who lived near Malmaison, 
and to whom he granted a pension. " I believe," said the 
Emperor, " that the good man, in his gratitude, would at 
that instant have written willingly and from the bottom 
of his heart, whatever one had wished." 

" At Marengo," said Napoleon, " the Austrians were 
beaten most thoroughly ; their troops behaved admirably, 
but their valour was buried there ; we have not dis- 
covered them since." 

Of the character of Duroc, Napoleon said, " He had 
strong, tender, and secret passions, of which his cold ex- 






NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 69 

terior gave little promise. I was a long time before I 
knew him, his service was so exact and regular ; it was 
only when my day was entirely finished, and when I was 
already reposing, that his commenced. Only chance or 
accident could have made me know him. Duroc was 
pure and moral, entirely disinterested in receiving, ex- 
tremely generous in giving." 

" The rock of St. Helena," said Napoleon, " is barren 
and wild, and the climate is monotonous and unhealthy, 
but the temperature, we must agree, is mild." 

" The isle of Elba, considered so wretched a year ago, 
is a delectable place compared with St. Helena. As to 
St. Helena, ah ! it can defy all regrets to come." 

" Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, can and 
ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France 
owes a part of her great actions to Corneille." 

To Las Cases, speaking of the invasion of England, he 
said one day, " I possessed the best army that ever was, 
that of Austerlitz, that is saying everything. Four days 
would have sufficed to find me in London ; I should not 
have gone as a conqueror, but a liberator. I should 
have re-called William III., but with more generosity 
and disinterestedness. The discipline of my army would 
have been perfect ; it should have been conducted in Lon- 
don as if still at Paris ; no sacrifices, not even contribu- 
tions exacted from the English ; we would not have pre- 
sented ourselves to them as conquerors, but as brothers 
who came to restore them to their liberty and their rights. 
I would have told them to assemble and work themselves 
for their regeneration, that they were our elders in point 



7 o TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

of political legislation, that we were there for nothing 
but to enjoy their happiness and their prosperity, and I 
would have kept strict faith with them. Thus, after the 
lapse of a few months, these two nations, once so 
violently antagonistic, would have been composed of 
people identical, henceforth, by their principles, their 
maxims, and their interests ; and I should have set out 
thence to work in the middle and north of Europe under 
the republican colours (I was then first consul) European 
regeneration, as later I was on the point of working my 
way from the north to the middle, under monarchical 
forms. And these two systems might have been both 
equally good, because they both tended to the same end 
and would both have been conducted with firmness, 
moderation, and good faith. What ills that are known 
to us, and what ills that we are still ignorant of, might 
poor Europe not have been spared ! Never was a pro- 
ject, so great in the interests of civilization, conceived 
with more generous intentions, and never did one ap- 
proach nearer its execution. And a remarkable thing, 
the obstacles which checked me did not come from man ; 
they all came from the elements. In the middle of 
Europe the sea lost me, and the burning of Moscow, and 
the ice and snow of winter, frustrated my plans in the 
north : thus water, air, and fire, all nature, and nothing 
but nature, have been the enemies of a universal regen- 
eration, commanded by nature herself . . . The 
problems of Providence are insoluble." 

After some moments of silence he again continued : 
" They thought my invasion was only a vain threat, 
because they saw no reasonable means for attempting it, 
but I should have withdrawn, and worked without being 
seen. I had scattered all our vessels ; the English were 
obliged to run after them to different parts of the world ; 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 71 

our own, at the same time, had nothing to do but return 
all at once to assemble en masse round our coasts. 
I ought to have seventy or eighty French or Spanish 
vessels in the channel. I had calculated that I should 
remain master of it for two months ; I had three or four 
thousand little ships which only awaited the signal ; 
my hundred thousand men went through the manoeuvre 
of embarkation and disembarkation daily as usual ; they 
were full of ardour and good-will, the enterprise was 
very popular amongst the French, and we were called 
by the wishes of a great part of England. If my plan 
worked satisfactorily, one pitched battle should have 
been sufficient ; the issue could not have been doubtful, 
victory would have placed us in London, and my con- 
duct would have done the rest. The English people 
trembled under the yoke of the oligarchy ... we 
should have presented ourselves with the magic words 
of equality and fraternity." 

" How many superior men are children more than 
once in a day ! " 

Napoleon declaimed against temper in women. " No- 
thing," said he, " announces rank, education, and good 
breeding in them more than the evenness of their dispo- 
sition and the desire to please." He said that they were 
brought up to be mistresses of themselves. " My two 
wives were always thus ; they were certainly very differ- 
ent in their qualities and dispositions, although they 
were exactly alike on this point. I have never been a 
witness to the bad humour of one or the other ; both 
were constantly occupied in pleasing me. . ." 

Some one remarked that Marie Louise had boasted, 
that whenever she wanted anything, no matter how 



72 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

difficult it might be to obtain it, she had only to cry 
for it. The Emperor laughed and said, " That is quite a 
discovery to me ; one might have suspected Josephine of 4 
such a thing, but not Marie Louise." 

In a moonlight walk with Las Cases, Napoleon said 
that he had had "the closest acquaintance with two 
directly different women in his life : one represented art 
and the graces ; the other innocence and simple nature ; 
and both," he observed, " were very worthy. In no one 
moment of her life did the first adopt attitudes and posi- 
tions that were rot agreeable and seductive ; all that art 
could lavish on attractions was employed by her, but 
with such skill that it was not perceived. The other, on 
the contrary, never saw anything to be gained by inno- 
cent artifices. The first never asked her husband for 
anything, but was in debt everywhere ; the second did 
not hesitate to ask when she wanted anything, which was 
rarely ; she would have thought it impossible to get any- 
thing without paying for it immediately. For the rest 
both were good, kind, and much attached to their hus- 
band." 

" Whoever had known them," says Las Cases, " must 
have recognized his two empresses." 

Speaking to Las Cases of La Nouvelle Heloise, that he 
was reading, he said, " Jean- Jacques has overloaded his 
subject. He has depicted frenzy. Love should be a 
pleasure, not a torment." 

Las Cases affirmed that there was nothing in Jean- 
Jacques that a man might not feel. 

" I see," said the Emperor, laughing, " that you have 
given yourself up to the romantic," 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 73 

Napoleon finally concluded, that "perfect love was 
ideal happiness ; that both were equally visionary, fugi- 
tive, mysterious, and inexplicable; and that love, in 
short, should be the occupation of the idle man, the dis- 
traction of the warrior, the rock of the sovereign." 

" My one code," said Napoleon, " by its simplicity, 
has done more good in France than the mass of all the 
laws that preceded me. Under my reign, crimes were 
rapidly decreasing ; whilst among our neighbours, the 
English, they increased, on the contrary, in a frightful 
manner. And that is enough to pronounce definitely 
upon the respective administrations. 1 

" And see in the United States how, without effort, 
everything prospers, how happy and peaceful everything 
is there ; it is in reality the public will and interests 
which govern there. Put the same government at war 
with the will, the interests of all, and you will imme- 
diately see what confusion and what increase of crimes 
would ensue. Arrived at power, they would have had 
me a Washington ; the words cost nothing, and surely 
those who said them with such facility did so without 
knowing either times or places, or men, or things. If I 
had been in America I would willingly have been a 
Washington, and I should have had but little merit ; for 
I do not see how it would have been reasonably possible 



1 Montverau (" Situation de l'Angleterre") gives the follow- 
ing table, which bears out Napoleon's words : — 

France. England. 

t«»»„k-* 4. Condemned T , ... Condemned 

Inhabitants. . , ., T Inhabitants. . -, ., 

to death. In to death. 

34,000,000 882 1801 16,000,000 3400 

42,000,000 392 1811 17,000,000 6400 



74 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

to do otherwise. . . . For me I could be nothing but a 
crowned Washington. It was not that in a congress of 
kings, in the midst of kings conquered or mastered, that 
I could become so. Then and there alone I could show 
with effect, his moderation, his sagacity, his wisdom ; I 
could not reasonably reach that but through the universal 
dictatorship. I aspired to it. Do they make me a cri- 
minal for that ? Will they think it was above human 
powers, de s'en demettre ? Sylla, gorged with crimes, has 
dared to abdicate, pursued by public execration. What 
motive would have had power to stop me ? I, who had 
none but blessings to receive. But to ask of me, before 
the time, what was not seasonable, was a vulgar folly; 
for me to announce it, to promise it, would have been 
taken for verbiage, for charlatanism ; it was not my way. 
... I repeat it, it was necessary for me to conquer at 
Moscow." 

The household at Longwood was not always so 
unanimous as Napoleon liked. On one occasion, he said 
to them, " You have followed me to be agreeable, you 
say ? Be brothers ! otherwise you are nothing but trou- 
bles to me. Be brothers ! otherwise you are only a bur- 
den to me. 

" You talk of fighting, and that under my very eyes ! 
Am I no longer, then, the object of your care, and is not 
the eye of the stranger still upon us ? I wish every one 
here to be animated with my spirit. ... I wish all 
around me to be happy, and I wish all to share in the 
few enjoyments that are left to us." 

One day, Napoleon said, "I could have shared the 
Turkish empire with Russia ; we have discussed the 
question more than once. Constantinople always saved 



\ 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 75 

it. This capital was the great embarrassment, the true 
stumbling-block. Russia wanted it, and I would not 
grant it. It is too precious a key ; it alone is worth an 
empire ; whoever possesses it can govern the world." 

" Talleyrand," said Napoleon to Las Cases, "was 
always in a state of treason ; but it was complicity 
with fortune. His circumspection was extreme, con- 
ducting himself with his friends as if they were his ene- 
mies ; and with his enemies as if they might become his 
friends. In the affair of the divorce, he was for the 
Empress Josephine. It was he who hastened on the 
war with Spain, although in public he had the art to 
appear opposed to it. Finally," continued Napoleon, * 4 it 
was he who was the active cause, and the principal in- 
strument, in the death of the Duke d'Enghien." 

" Madame de Maintenon's style charms me," said 
Napoleon ; " if I am deeply wounded by what is bad, 
I have a feeling, an irresistible attraction, for what is 
good." 

Of Madame de Sevigne, he added, " Her style is un- 
doubtedly full of charm; but you gain nothing by 
reading her. It is like eating snowballs, with which one 
can surfeit one's self without satisfying the stomach." 

On the 10th of November, while he was walking 
with Las Cases, he met Mrs. Balcombe, and Mrs. Stuart, 
a lady on her voyage from England to Bombay. Whilst 
talking, some slaves toiled up the narrow path with bur- 
dens. Mrs. Balcombe, in a rather angry tone, ordered 
them to keep back ; but the Emperor, making room for 
the slaves, turned to Mrs. Balcombe, and said, mildly, 
" Respect the burden, madam !" 



76 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

In conversation with Mr. Balcombe, Napoleon re- 
marked, " I have no faith in medicines. My remedies 
are fasting and the warm bath. At the same time, I 
have a higher opinion of the medical, or rather the sur- 
gical profession, than of any other. The practice of the 
law is too severe an ordeal for poor human nature. . . . 
The man who habituates himself to the distortion of 
truth, and to exultation at the success of injustice, will, 
at last, hardly know right from wrong. So with politics, 
a man must have a conventional conscience. The eccle- 
siastics become hypocrites, since too much is expected of 
them. As to soldiers, they are cut-throats and robbers. 
But the mission of surgeons is to benefit mankind, not 
to destroy them or to inflame them against each other." 

"We are but a handful in one corner of the world," 
said Napoleon. 

Napoleon often received touching testimonials to the 
admiration, and even affection, that many strangers had 
for him. On one occasion he said to Las Cases, " See 
the effect of imagination ! How powerful is its influence ! 
Here are people who do not know me, perhaps have 
never seen me ; they have only heard me spoken of, and 
what do they not feel ? What would they not do to 
serve me ? And the same caprice is found in all coun- 
tries, in all ages, and in both sexes. Yes, imagination 
rules the world." 

One day when the Emperor was not well, " What 
a miserable thing is man ! " said he ; " the smallest fibre 
in his body, assailed by disease, is sufficient to derange 
his whole system. On the other hand, in spite of all the 
maladies to which he is subject, it is sometimes necessary 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 77 

to employ the executioner to put an end to him. What 
a curious machine is this earthly clothing ! And perhaps 
I may be confined in it for thirty years longer." 

Some one remarked to Napoleon that the clouds of 
detraction would disperse as his memory advanced in 
posterity. 

" That is true," he replied, " and my fate may be said 
to be the very opposite of others. A fall usually has 
the effect of lowering a man's character. But on the 
contrary, my fall has elevated me prodigiously. Every 
succeeding day divests me of some portion of my 
tyrant's skin.'" 

O'Meara asked Napoleon why he had protected the 
Jews so much. 

"I wished them to give up usury," Napoleon an- 
swered, " and become like other men. They were very 
numerous in the countries over which I reigned ; I 
hoped, by making them free, and giving them equal 
rights with Catholics, Protestants, and others, to make 
them good citizens, and force them to conduct them- 
selves like the rest of the world. . . . My system 
was to make no religion predominant, but to allow 
perfect liberty of conscience and thought, to make all 
men equal, Catholics, Protestants, Mahometans, deists, or 
others ; so that their religion might have no influence 
in obtaining them employments under government, so 
that it might not make them either sought for or 
dreaded." 

O'Meara once endeavoured to persuade Bonaparte to 
take some medicine. He refused, and raising his eyes 
to heaven, said, " That which is written is written. Our 
days are numbered." 



73 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" What," said Napoleon to Las Cases, " what is more 
overbearing than weakness which feels itself protected 
by strength ? Look at women, for example ! " 

Napoleon said to Montholon, "I know men, and I 
tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man ! The religion 
of Christ is a mystery which subsists by its own force, 
and proceeds from a mind which is not a human mind. 
We find in it a marked individuality, which originated 
a train of words and maxims unknown before. Jesus 
borrowed nothing from our knowledge. He exhibited 
Himself the perfect example of His precepts. Jesus is 
not a philosopher ; for His proofs are His miracles, and 
from the first His disciples adored Him. Learning and 
philosophy are of no use to salvation ; and Jesus came 
into the world to reveal the mysteries of heaven and 
the laws of the spirit. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, 
and myself have founded empires. But upon what did 
we rest the creations of our genius ? Upon force ! Jesus 
Christ alone, founded His empire upon love ; and at this 
moment millions of men would die for Him. I die before 
my time, and my body will be given back to earth, to 
become food for worms. Such is the fate of him who 
has been called the Great Napoleon. What an abyss be- 
tween my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of 
Christ, which is proclaimed, loved, and adored, and 
which is extended over the whole earth ! Call you this 
dying ? Is it not living rather ? The death of Christ 
is the death of a God ! " 

" I fear nothing for my renown," Napoleon said at 
St. Helena. " Posterity will do me justice. It will 
compare the good I have done with the faults I have 
committed. If I had succeeded, I should have died with 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 79 

the reputation of being the greatest man who ever lived. 
From being nothing, I became, by my own exertions, the 
most powerful monarch in the world, without commit- 
ting any crime. My ambition was great, but it rested 
on the opinion of the masses. I have always thought 
that sovereignty resides in the people. The empire, as 
I organized it, was but a great republic. Called to the 
throne by the voice of the people, my maxim has always 
been, a career open to talent without distinction of births 
It is this system of equality for which the European oli- 
garchy detests me. And yet in England, talent and 
great services raise a man to the highest rank. England 
should have understood me." 

Napoleon uttered the following graphic eulogium 
upon his family. " What family, in similar circumstances, 
would have acted better than mine has done ? Every 
one is not qualified to be a statesman. That requires a 
combination of powers which does not often fall to the lot 
of any one. In this respect all my brothers and sisters 
were singularly situated ; they possessed at once too 
much and too little talent. They felt themselves too 
strong to resign themselves blindly to a guiding coun- 
sellor, and yet too weak to be left entirely to themselves. 

" England is said to traffic in everything. Why then 
does she not sell liberty, for which she might get a high 
price, and without any fear of exhausting her stock ? 
For example, what would not the poor Spaniards give 
her to free them from the yoke to which they have again 
been subjected ? I am confident that they would wil- 
lingly pay any price to regain their freedom. It was I 
who inspired them with this sentiment, and the error into 
which I fell might at least be turned into good account. 



80 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

by another government. As to the Italians, I have 
planted in their hearts principles which can never be 
rooted out. What can England do better than promote 
and assist the noble impulses of modern regeneration ? 
Sooner or later this regeneration must be accomplished. 
Sovereigns and old aristocratic institutions may exert 
their efforts' to oppose it, but in vain. They are doom- 
ing themselves to the punishment of Josephus. Sooner 
or later some arm will tire of resistance, and then the 
whole system will fall to nothing. Would it not be 
better to yield with a good grace? This was my inten- 
tion. Why does England refuse to avail herself of the 
glory and advantage she might derive from this course 
of proceeding ? " 

" Shortly after my return from the conquest of Italy ,'' 
Napoleon said, " I was accosted by Madame de Stael, at 
a grand entertainment given by M. Talleyrand. She 
asked me in the midst of a large circle who was the 
greatest woman in the world. I looked at her and coldly 
replied, ' She, madame, who has borne the greatest 
number of children.' Madame de Stael was a little dis- 
concerted at first ; she endeavoured to recover herself by 
observing that it was reported that I was not very fond 
of women. 4 Pardon me, madame,' I replied, 4 1 am very 
fond of my wife.' I cannot call her a wicked woman ; 
but she was a restless intriguer, possessed of consider- 
able talent and influence." 

"All the Emperor Alexander's thoughts," said Napoleon 
at St. Helena, " are directed to the conquest of Turkey. 
We have had many discussions about it. At first, his 
proposals pleased me, because I thought it would en- 
lighten the world, to drive these brutes the Turks out 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 81 

of Europe. But when I reflected upon its consequences, 
and saw what a tremendous weight of power it would 
give to Russia, on account of the number of Greeks in 
the Turkish dominion, who would naturally join the 
Russians, I refused to consent to it, especially as Alex- 
ander wanted Constantinople, which I would not consent 
to, as it would destroy the equilibrium of power in 
Europe." 

" An aristocracy is the true, the only support of a 
monarchy," said Napoleon. " Without it the State is a 
vessel without a rudder — a balloon in the air. A true 
aristocracy, however, must be ancient. Therein consists 
its real force, its talismanic charm. That was the only 
thing which I could not create. Reasonable democracy 
will never aspire to anything more than obtaining an 
equal power of elevation to all. The true policy in 
these times was to employ the remains of the aristocracy 
with the forms and the spirit of democracy." 

" It was the subject of my perpetual dreams," said 
Napoleon, " to render Paris the real capital of Europe. 
I sometimes wished it, for instance, to become a city 
with a population of two, three, or four millions — 
in a word, something fabulous, colossal, unexampled, 
until our days, and with establishments suitable to its 
population." 

Speaking of Lannes, Napoleon said : " He would 
hear of none but me. Undoubtedly he loved his wife 
and children better, yet he spoke not of them. He was 
their protector, I his. I was to him something vague 
and undefined, a superior being, a providence whom he 
implored. He was a man on whom I could implicitly 

G 



82 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

rely. Sometimes, from the impetuosity of his disposition, 
he allowed a hasty expression about me to escape him ; 
but he would have blown out the brains of any one who 
should have ventured to repeat it. Originally, his bodily 
courage was greater than his judgment, but the latter 
daily improved ; and at the period of his death, he had 
reached the highest point of his profession, and was a 
most able commander. I found him a dwarf, and lost 
him a giant. Had he lived to see our reverses, it would 
have been impossible for him to have swerved from the 
path of duty and honour ; and he alone was capable, by 
his own weight and influence, of changing the entire 
aspect of affairs." 

" If I had not conquered at Austerlitz," said Napo- 
leon, " I should have had all Prussia on me. If I had 
not been victorious at Jena, Austria and Spain would 
have attacked me in the rear. If I had not triumphed 
at Wagram — which, by-the-bye, was not so decisive a 
victory — I had to fear that Russia would abandon me, 
that Prussia would rise against me ; and, in the mean- 
time, the English were already before Antwerp." 

" My divorce has no parallel in history. It did not 
destroy the ties which united our families, and our mu- 
tual tenderness remained unchanged. Our separation 
was a sacrifice demanded of us by reason for the inte- 
rests of my crown and my dynasty. Josephine was de- 
voted to me. She loved me tenderly. No one ever had 
a preference over me in her heart. I occupied the first 
place in it, her children the next. She was right in thus 
loving me, and the remembrance of her is still all-power- 
ful in my mind." 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 83 

"Louis," said Napoleon, of his brother, "had been 
spoilt by reading Rousseau's works. He contrived to 
agree with his wife only for a few months. There were 
faults on both sides. On the one hand Louis was too 
teasing in his temper, and on the other, Hortense was 
too volatile. They were attached to each other at the 
time of their marriage, which was agreeable to their 
mutual wishes. The union was, however, contrived by 
Josephine, who had her own views in promoting it. I, 
on the contrary, would rather have extended my connec- 
tion with other families ; and, for a moment, I had an 
idea of forming a union between Louis and a niece of 
Talleyrand, who afterward became Madame Juste de 
Noaille." 

Speaking of the proposed surrender of Hlyria and 
Venetian Lombardy to Austria, Napoleon said : " How 
greatly was I perplexed, to find that I was the only man 
who could judge of our danger ! On the one hand I was 
disturbed by the coalesced powers, which threatened our 
very existence ; and on the other by my own subjects, 
who, in their blindness, seemed to make common cause 
with the foe. Our enemies laboured for my destruction, 
and the importunities of my ministers and people tended 
to induce me to throw myself on the mercy of foreigners. 
I saw that the destinies and principles of France de- 
pended upon me alone. The circumstances in which the 
country was placed were extraordinary and entirely 
new. It would be vain to seek for a parallel to them. 
The stability of the edifice of which I was the keystone 
but depended upon each of my battles. Had I been con- 
quered at Marengo, France would have encountered all 
the disasters of 1814 and 1815, without those prodigies 
of glory which succeeded, and which will be immortal. 



8 4 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

At Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau, and at Wagram, it was 
the same. The vulgar failed not to blame my ambition 
as the cause of these wars, but they were not of my 
choosing. They were caused by the nature and force of 
"^eveirt^ They arose out of that conflict of the past and 
the future, that permanent coalition of our enemies 
which compelled us to subdue, under pain of being 
subdued." 

Once, at St. Helena, when Montholon was going into 
the town on business, Bonaparte said to him: "Now, 
Montholon, mind you bring me no lies as news, as Mar- 
shal Bertrand goes to town to-morrow, and I shall then 
hear the truth" 

Napoleon was much insulted at the early and uncere- 
monious visit paid him by Sir George Cockburn and Sir 
Hudson Lowe, for the purpose of introducing the latter 
to him as the new Governor of St. Helena. 

" The first insult he offered me," said Napoleon, " was 
at his own table in the Northumberland, shortly after I 
came on board. I did not wish to sit at table for two or 
three hours, like the English, guzzling and drinking, and 
I therefore got up and walked the deck, upon which he 
said, in a contemptuous manner, ' I believe the General 
has never read Lord Chesterfield,' meaning that I was 
deficient in politeness, and did not know how to sit at 
table ; upon which Madame Bertrand, who understands 
English, said to him, ' Sir, the greatest sovereigns in 
Europe have thought it an honour to dine with the Em- 
peror Napoleon.' This was a most gross insult to me. 
I never shall see him with pleasure : my communication 
with him is finished now. ... If he wanted to see Lord 
Keith, or Lord St. Vincent, or Lord Melville, he would 






NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 85 

have sent to know what time was convenient to them, 
would he not ? and I think the actions I have performed 
are at least as well known as any the two first have done, 
setting aside the fact of my having been a crowned head. 
He is a fool," he continued, " a coarse man." 

Napoleon dictated the following for his domestics, who 
wished to remain with him at Longwood, to sign : — 

u We, the undersigned, wishing to continue in the 
service of H. M. the Emperor Napoleon, consent, hor- 
rible as is the abode in St. Helena, to remain here. We 
submit to the restrictions, though unjust and arbitrary, 
that are imposed upon H. M. and upon the persons in 
his service." 

" There," said he, when he had finished his dictation, 
" let those who like sign that." 

At Sir Hudson Lowe's second interview with Napo- 
leon, the latter said to him, " The allies have made a 
convention declaring me their prisoner. What do they 
mean ? They have no authority to do so. I wish you 
to write to your Government, and acquaint it I shall 
protest against it. I gave myself up to England, and to 
no other power. It is an act of the British Parliament 
alone which can warrant such proceedings against me. 
I have been treated in a cruel manner. I misunderstood 
the character of the English people. I should have sur- 
rendered myself to the Emperor of Russia, who was my 
friend, or to the Emperor of Austria, who was related to 
me. There is courage in putting a man to death, but it 
is an act of cowardice to let him languish, and to poison 
him in so horrid an island and so detestable a climate. 
Let them send me a coffin," he continued, presently; "a 
couple of balls in the head would be quite sufficient. 






86 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

What does it signify to me whether I lie on a velvet or 
a fustian couch ? I am a soldier and used to everything. 
I have been landed here like a convict, and proclama- 
tions forbid the inhabitants to speak to me." 

Apropos of this interview, O'Meara reports Napoleon 
to have said to him afterwards : " I never saw such a 
horrid countenance. He sat on a chair opposite to my 
sofa, and on the table between us there was a cup of 
coffee. His physiognomy made such an unfavourable 
impression upon me, that I thought his looks had poisoned 
it, and I ordered Marchand to throw it out of window ; 
I could not have swallowed it for the world." 

Speaking of a stormy interview with Sir Hudson Lowe, 
Napoleon said : " I behaved very ill to him, no doubt, 
and nothing but my present situation could have excused 
me. I was out of humour ; I should blush for it in any 
other situation. Had such a scene taken place at the 
Tuileries, I should have felt myself bound in conscience 
to make some atonement. Never during the period of 
my power did I speak harshly to any one, without after- 
wards saying something to make amends for it. Here I 
uttered not a word of conciliation, and 1 had no wish to. 
The Governor proved very insensible to my severity ; 
his delicacy did not seem wounded by it. I should have 
liked, for his sake, to have seen him evince a little anger, 
or pull the door violently after him when he went away. 
This would, at least, have shown that there was some 
spring and elasticity about him ; but I found nothing of 
the kind."* (May, 1816.) 

* Napoleon, as Sir Hudson Lowe told him in the conversation 
referred to, does indeed appear to have totally misunderstood 
the English character, and to have ignorantly confounded self- 
control with want of feeling. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 87 

In a letter to Sir Thos. Reade (July, 1816,) O'Meara 
gives part of a conversation Bonaparte held with him. 
" He asked," says O'Meara, " 4 What are those coglioni, 
the Commissioners, doing in the town ? ' 

"He asked about Madame Stiirmer. I said that she 
was, I believed, the handsomest, or one of the hand- 
somest women in the island. 

" ' What,' said he, ' is she handsomer than Lady 
Lowe V 

" He asked about Montchenu, and repeated : ' Poor 
fool ! poor old fool ! poor fool !' — (Povero coglione, 
povero vecchio coglione), — several times, with an air of 
contempt. ' And that coglionaccio, his aide-de-camp, 
what does he do?' 

" I said, I believed he walked up and down the streets 
with his master. 

" ■ Ah ! poor fool,' said he, laughing ; and afterwards, 
1 Poor, imbecile lacquey !' (Ah ! povero miuchione Ra- 
gazzachiO) povero imbecile ! ") 

On the 18th of August, Sir Hudson Lowe had his last 
stormy and unsatisfactory interview with Xapoleon. 
Speaking of it to Las Cases, he said: "I must receive 
this officer no more, he puts me in a passion ; it is be- 
neath my dignity. It would have been more worthy of 
me, finer and greater, to have expressed all these things 
with composure ; they would, besides, have been more 
impressive." 

On the 16th of October, Bonaparte wrote to Sir 
Hudson Lowe, requesting permission to take another 
name. " I am quite ready," said he, " to take any ordi- 
nary name ; and I repeat, that when it may be deemed 
proper to release me from this cruel abode, I am resolved 



8S TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

to remain a stranger to politics, whatever may be passing 
in the world. Such is my resolve, and anything which 
may have been said different from this would not be the 
fact." 

Sir Hudson Lowe, in a letter to Lord Bathurst, re- 
lates the following anecdote : — 

"Cipriani came out one day from General Bonaparte's 
room to Dr. O'Meara, saying, in a manner indicating 
great surprise, c My master is certainly beginning to lose 
his head. He begins to believe in God, one would think. 
He said to the servant, who was shutting the windows : 
" Why do you take from us the light which God gives 
us?" Oh, certainly he is losing his head. He began at 
Waterloo, but it is certain now. ' " 

The following statement, made by Napoleon to 
O'Meara, concerning the battle of Waterloo, will be 
found very interesting, although, undoubtedly, feelings 
of jealousy towards Wellington and his troops have 
helped to form his opinions. 

" The worst thing that ever England did was en- 
deavouring to make herself a great military nation. 
In doing so, she must always be the slave of Russia, 
Prussia, or Austria, or at least in some degree subser- 
vient to them, because she has not enough men to com- 
bat with France or any other continental nation, and 
consequently must hire men from some of them ; whereas 
at sea she is so superior, her sailors so much better, 
that she would always be superior, and could command 
all the others with safety to herself and but comparatively 
little expense. Your English soldiers, too, have not the 
qualities for a military nation ; they are not equal in 
agility, address, or intelligence, to the French, and when 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 89 

they meet with a reverse their discipline is very bad. 
When they get from under the fear of the lash, you can 
get them to do nothing, and in a retreat they cannot be 
managed; and if they meet with wine or spirits they 
are so many devils, and there is no longer any subordi- 
nation. I saw myself the retreat of Moore, and I never 
in my life witnessed anything so bad as the conduct of 
the soldiers ; it was impossible to collect them or make 
them do anything ; nearly all were drunk. The officers, 
too, depend too much upon interest for promotion. 
Your army," he continued, " is certainly brave, nobody 
can deny it. If you had lost the battle of Waterloo 
what a state England would have been in, — the flower 
of your army destroyed ; for not a man would have 
escaped, not even Lord Wellington himself." 

" I told him here," says O'Meara, " that Lord Wel- 
lington had determined never to quit the field of battle 
alive. 

" He replied, ' He could not leave it, — he could not 
retreat ; he would have been destroyed with his whole 
army. He said so himself to that cavalry officer who 
was wounded. If Grouchy had come up at that time in- 
stead of the Prussians, not a man would have escaped.' " 

O'Meara asked him if he had not believed for a long 
time that the Prussians who advanced on his right were 
Grouchy's division. He replied : 

" To be sure I did ; and I can even now scarcely ac- 
count for the reason why it was not Grouchy's division, 
instead of them." 

O'Meara then asked him what he supposed would have 
been the event if neither Grouchy nor the Prussians had 
come up that day, — if it would not have been a drawn 
battle, — whether both armies would not have kept their 
ground ? 



90 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" No," was his reply, " the English army would have 
been destroyed ; it was defeated before mid-day (mezzo 
giorno). I should have gained everything. I had 
gained everything. I beat the Prussians ; but acci- 
dent, or more likely destiny decided that Lord Wel- 
lington should gain it, and he did so. He was fortunate, 
accident and destiny favoured him. I could scarcely 
have believed he would have given me battle, because, 
if he had retreated, as he ought to have done, to 
Antwerp, I must have been overwhelmed by armies of 
three or four hundred thousand men coming against 
me, whom I could not possibly have resisted. Besides, 
if they intended to give battle, it was the greatest cogli- 
oneria in the world to separate the Prussian and English 
armies ; they ought to have been united, and I cannot 
conceive the reason of their separation. It was also 
coglioneria in him to hazard a battle in a place where, if 
defeated, all must have been lost, for he could not 
retreat. He would have been altogether destroyed ; he 
suffered himself to be surprised by me. He ought to 
have had all his army encamped from the beginning of 
June, as he must have known that I intended to attack 
him ; he might have lost everything by it ; it was a great 
fault on his part ; but he has been fortunate, and every- 
thing he did will meet with applause. My intentions 
were to destroy the English army; this I knew would 
produce an immediate change of ministry. The indig- 
nation against the ministry for having caused the loss of 
forty thousand of the flower of the English army, of the 
sons of the first families, and others who would have 
perished there, would have excited such a popular com- 
motion that they would have been turned out ; the 
people would have said, What is it to us who is on 
the throne of France, Louis or Napoleon ? Are we to 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST, 91 

sacrifice all our blood to place on the throne a detested 
family ? No, we have suffered enough, let them fight it 
out amongst them ; it's no affair of ours ! The English 
would have made peace and withdrawn from the coali- 
tion ; the Saxons, Bavarians, Belgians, Wurtemburgers 
and others, would have joined me ; the Russians would 
have made peace. I would have been quietly seated on 
the throne ; I would have made peace with all, which 
would have been permanent, for what could France do 
after the treaty of Paris ? What was to be feared from 
her ? This was my reason for attacking the English. 
Before twelve o'clock I had succeeded ; everything was 
mine, I might almost say ; but destiny and accident 
decided it otherwise. The English fought bravely, 
doubtless, but they would have been all destroyed. 
What would have been the state of the English army 
after the loss of forty thousand of their best troops ? 
for I suppose there were about so many English in the 
field." 

O'Meara asked if the retaining of Malta by the English 
was the real cause of the war ? At first Napoleon re- 
plied that it was, but afterwards seemed to say that the 
war would have broken out even if that pretext had not 
been in the way. He added, " Two days before the de- 
parture of Lord Whitworth from Paris, he offered to the 
ministers and others about me thirty millions of francs 
if I would consent that Malta should belong to the 
English, and also to acknowledge me King of France. 

" They send me the * Times, 1 " said Napoleon, " that 
infamous paper, the journal of the Bourbons. When I 
returned from Elba I found amongst the papers of the 
Bourbons an account of a sum of 6000 francs monthly 
paid by them to the editors of the 'Times,' with a 



92 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

hundred copies of the papers monthly ; I also found the 
receipt of the editors acknowledging it, signed by them. 
He also said that he had received offers from the editors 
of London papers, and amongst others the 'Times,' to 
write for him for payment even before he went to Elba. 
He added, ' I am sorry I did not accept their offers, as 
my name would not have been so hated by the English, 
if T had done so ; the papers in England form the public 
opinion."* 

On the 11th of December Napoleon wrote to Las 
Cases as follows : f 

"My Dear Count be Las Cases, — My heart is 
deeply affected by what you now experience. Torn 
from me a fortnight ago, you have been ever since 
closely confined, without the possibility of my receiving 
any news from you or sending you any ; without having 
had any communication with any person, either French 
or English ; deprived even of the attendance of a ser- 
vant of your own choice. Your conduct at St. Helena 
has been like the whole of your life, honourable and irre- 
proachable ; I have pleasure in giving you this testimony ; 
your letter to a friend in London contains nothing ob- 
jectionable ; you merely unburden your heart in the 
bosom of friendship. This letter is similar to eight or 
ten others which you have written to the same person, 
and which you have sent unsealed. The governor 
having had the indelicacy to pry into the expressions 



* Letter of O'Meara to Mr. Finlaison, dated the 10th of 
October. 

f This was after Las Cases' arrest for endeavouring to send 
communications, written on silk taffetas, by means of a former 
mulatto servant of his, to Lady Clavering and Lucien Bonaparte. 



i 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 93 

which you confide to friendship, has latterly reproached 
you with them, threatening to send you out of the island 
if your letters continued to be the bearers of complaints 
against him. He has thus violated the first duty of his 
situation, the first article of his instructions, the first sen- 
timent of honour ; he has thus authorized you to seek for 
means to open your heart to your friends, and inform 
them of the guilty conduct of this governor. But you 
have been very simple ; your confidence has been easily 
beguiled ! A pretext has been wanting to seize upon 
your papers, but your letter to your friend in London 
could not authorize a visit from the police to you since 
it contained neither plot nor mystery ; since it was only 
the expression of a noble and sincere heart. The illegal 
and precipitate conduct observed on this occasion bears 
the stamp of a base feeling of personal animosity. In 
the least civilized countries, exiles, prisoners, and crimi- 
nals even are under the protection of the laws and 
magistrates ; those persons who are entrusted with the 
keeping of them have superior officers in the administra- 
tion who watch over them. On this rock, the man who 
makes the most absurd regulations, executes them with 
violence and transgresses all laws ; there is no one to 
check the outrages of his passions. The Prince Regent 
can never be informed of the acts carried on under his 
name ; they have refused to forward my letters to him ; 
they have in a violent manner sent back the complaints 
made by Count Montholon ; and Count Bertrand has 
since been informed that no letters would be received 
if they continued to be libellous as they had hitherto 
been. Longwood is surrounded by a mystery, which it 
is sought to render impenetrable in order to conceal a 
guilty line of conduct which is calculated to create a 
suspicion of the most criminal intentions ! ! ! By reports 



94 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

insidiously circulated, it is endeavoured to deceive the 
officers, the travellers, the inhabitants of this island, and 
even the agents, which, it is said, Austria and Russia 
have sent here. ISTo doubt the English government is 
deceived, in like manner, by artful and false representa- 
tions. They have seized your papers, amongst which 
they know there were some belonging to me, without 
the least formality, in the room next to mine, with a 
ferocious eclat and manifestation of joy. I was informed 
of it afterwards, and looked from the window, when I 
saw that they were hurrying you away. A numerous 
staff was prancing round the house; methought I saw 
the inhabitants of the Pacific ocean dancing round the 
prisoner they were about to devour. Your company was 
necessary to me. You are the only one that can read, 
speak, and understand English. How many nights you 
have watched over me during my illnesses. However, 
I advise you, and if necessary, I order you to demand of 
the governor of this country to send you to the conti- 
nent ;* he*cannot refuse, since he has no power over you, 
but by virtue of the act which you have voluntarily 
signed. It will be a great source of consolation to me 
to know that you are on your way to more favoured 
climes. Once in Europe, whether you proceed to 
England or return home, endeavour to forget the evils 
which you have been made to suffer ; and boast of the 
fidelity which you have shown towards me, and of all 
the affection I feel for you. If you should some day or 
other see my wife and son, embrace them for me ; for the 



* O'Meara, in his letter to Mr. Finlaison, of the 29th of 
December, 1816, says that Napoleon wrote this not knowing 
that Las Cases would be allowed to return .to Longwood, and 
thinking he would be kept au secret. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 95 

last two years I have had no news from them either 
directly or indirectly. There is in this country a German 
botanist, who has been here for the last six months, and 
who saw them in the gardens of Schoenbrun a few 
months before his departure. The barbarians have care- 
fully prevented him from coming to give me any news 
respecting them. In the meantime, be comforted and 
console my friends. My body, it is true, is exposed to 
the hatred of my enemies ; they omit nothing that can 
contribute to satisfy their vengeance ; they make me 
suffer the protracted tortures of a slow death, but Pro- 
vidence is too just to allow these sufferings to last much 
longer. The insalubrity of this dreadful climate, the 
want of everything that tends to support life, will soon, 
I feel, put an end to my existence, the last moments of 
which will be an opprobrium to the British name ; and 
Europe will one day stigmatize with horror that per- 
fidious and wicked man ; all true Englishmen will dis- 
own him as a Briton. As there is every reason to sup- 
pose that you will not be allowed to come and see me 
before your departure, receive my embrace and the as- 
surance of my friendship. Yours, 

" Napoleon." * 

" Man is only a more perfect animal than the rest. 



* A great many of the statements contained in this letter were 
evidently put forth as a mere ruse to frighten the governor and 
procure Las Cases' liberation. When Las Cases', on the 5th of 
December, sent a secret message to Longwood to the effect that 
he was admirably treated, Napoleon said, " Ha, ha ! I am gain- 
ing ground. Sir Hudson Lowe is evidently afraid." Again, on 
the 12th, after dictating to Marchand, a "fine" letter for Las 
Cases, he sent Gourgaud to fetch it and read it, observing that 
it " would terribly embarrass the governor." 



96 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

He reasons better. But who knows that lower animals 
have not a particular language ? I think it is pre- 
sumption on our part to deny it because we do not 
know. A horse has memory, knowledge, and sensibility. 
He distinguishes his master from the servants, although 
they are more constantly with him. I myself had 
a horse who distinguished me from all others, and who 
showed by his curvetings and superb pace, when I was 
on his back, that he carried a personage superior to those 
by whom he was surrounded. He only allowed myself 
and a groom to mount him, and when this man mounted 
him, his action was so different one would have thought 
he knew he had only a groom on his back. When I lost 
my way I threw the reins on his neck, and he always 
found it. Who can deny the intelligence of dogs ? 
There is a link between all animals. Plants are eating 
and drinking animals, and there are different gradations 
up to man, who is the most perfect of all. The same 
spirit animates them all, more or less." Napoleon dans 
Vexil. G'Meara. 



Of his two would-be assassins, Cerachi and the fanatic 
of Schoenbrun, Napoleon said, "Cerachi adored the con- 
sul once, till he said he could see nothing in him but »the 
tyrant. He was assisted by a captain of the line, sought 
admission for the purpose of altering a bust of me, and 
intended to stab me when I was posed. This officer 
of the line disliked me as consul, but adored me as 
general. He wished my post to be taken from me, 
but he would have grieved sin^rely if they had taken 
my life. ' They must seize m said he, l not do me any 
harm, and send me to the army to go on beating the 
enemy, and to make the glory of France.' " When he 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 97 

saw the poniards distributed he was afraid, and revealed 
the whole to the consul. 

" The fanatic of Schoenbrun," said the Emperor, 
" was the son of a Protestant minister of Erfurt. He 
was trying to force his way through the soldiers that sur- 
rounded me (it was at grand parade), when General 
Rapp, placing his hand on his chest to put him back, felt 
something underneath his coat. It was a two-edged 
knife, a foot and a half long. 1 " 

Napoleon had the assassin brought to his cabinet ; 
called Corvisart, and told him to feel the man's pulse 
whilst he talked to him. The assassin preserved his 
composure, openly avowed his intention, and frequently 
quoted Scripture. 

" What did you want with me ?" said the Emperor. 

" To kill you." 

" What have I done to you ? Who has made you my 
judge?" 

;t I wished to put an end to the war." 

" And why did you not address yourself to the 
Emperor Francis ?" 

" What good would that be ? he is nobody ! And then 
when he dies another will succeed him ; whereas, after 
you the French would immediately disappear from Ger- 
many." 

The Emperor sought in vain to move him. 

" Do you repent ?" he asked him. 

" No." 

" Would you do it again ? " 

" Yes." 

" But if I pardoned you ?" 

" Here," says Napo n, " nature for an instant re- 
sumed her sway, the fact and voice of the man altered." 

H 



9 8 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" Then," said he, " I should believe that it was not 
God's will." 

" But he soon recovered his ferocity," continues Na- 
poleon. " We made him fast for twenty-four hours ; 
the doctor examined him again; we questioned him 
anew. All was useless ; he remained the same man, or 
rather ferocious beast, and we left him to his fate." 

1817. When Sir Hudson Lowe sent to say that he 
would enter Napoleon's room, to assure himself that he 
had not escaped, he sent this message back : — " Tell my 
jailer that it only remains for him to exchange his keys 
for the axe of the executioner ; and if he enters, it shall 
be over a corpse. Give me my pistols." 

Sir Thomas Strange, one of the first judges in Cal- 
cutta, stopping at St. Helena on his way to England, 
asked through Sir Hudson Lowe, for permission to pay 
his respects to the emperor. " Tell the governor," said 
Napoleon to the grand marshal, "that men who have 
gone down into the tomb do not receive visits ; and take 
care that this Indian judge knows my answer." 

" My mother," said Napoleon, " is a woman of much 
order and great virtue. But like all mothers, she loved 
her children unequally. Pauline and I were her favour- 
ites ; Pauline, because she was the prettiest and most 
graceful ; I, perhaps through one of those natural in- 
stincts, which told her that I should be the creator of 
the nobility of her blood. When she came to see me at 
Brienne, she was so frightened at my thinness and the 
alteration in my features, that she fancied they had 
changed me, and hesitated some seconds before recognis- 
ing me. I was indeed much changed, because I em- 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 99 

ployed the hours of recreation in working, and often 
passed the nights in meditating upon the day's lessons. 
My nature could not bear the idea of not being at once 
the first in my class." 

" During my reign, I was wrong for not conversing 
more frequently with the ladies. I ought to have seen 
them every day ; they have an independence of spirit 
not found amongst men. How much might I not have 
learnt from women like Madame de Montmorency. I 
should then perhaps have got rid of Talleyrand. Madame 
Bassano, when I took away foreign affairs from her hus- 
band, sought me and reproached me for my ingratitude ; 
and spoke to me in a way that I did not understand. I 
don't know whence she got all she said to me. Madame 
de Rovigo also attacked me about her husband ; she 
absolutely wanted me to make him a marshal ; and re- 
called his devotion and services to me with unparalleled 
energy ; she almost upset me when she made the mis- 
take of saying to me, ' It is like Sebastiani, whom you 
neglect, and make your enemy.' * Ah madame, it is too 
much,' I exclaimed, ; to plead the cause of your husband 
at the same time that you speak for your lover.' Not 
in the least disconcerted, she replied, * I am no longer 
young enough to have a lover, you know very well . . . 
but, I repeat, you ought to manage Sebastiani. He is 
a man of much intelligence, of great influence in the 
Parliament, and you ought to make him marshal of 
France in your own interest. As to Savary, he is dif- 
ferent ; he will serve you the same whether you are un- 
grateful to him or not.' Well," continued the Emperor, 
" she was right ; if I had given the marshal's baton to 
Sebastiani, I should probably have kept the majority in the 
chamber of deputies ; and as he had commanded a corps 



loo TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

with distinction, this nomination would not have ap- 
peared at all extraordinary to the army." 

Napoleon related an anecdote of General Dejean and 
his son, who married two sisters. " Is what you have 
done quite orthodox ?" asked Napoleon of the general ; 
" a father and son to marry two sisters ?" 

" But," the general replied, " your majesty has done 
worse \ n 

"How so?" 

" You married the mother, and your brother married 
her daughter." 

"I?" 

" Certainly ; you the Empress Josephine, and your 
brother Louis the Princess Hortense her daughter." 

"My faith, I never thought of that," was the em- 
peror's reply ; and, he added at St. Helena smiling, 
" I told him the truth. I had so many other more im- 
portant things in my head." 

" The contagion of crime is like that of the plague," 
said Napoleon. " Criminals collected together cor- 
rupt each other ; they are worse than ever, when at 
the termination of their punishment they re-enter so- 
ciety." 

" At what time of my life do you think I was hap- 
piest?" Napoleon asked the grand marshal. 

" Undoubtedly, sire, at the birth of the king of 
Borne." 

"—Yes! I was content!" 

" At your majesty's marriage ?" said Gourgand. 

" Happy ! no, I was content." 

'Consul?" 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 101 

" I had no distinction." 

" Emperor ? " asked Montholon. 

" Perhaps ; but I am inclined to believe that I was 
happiest at Tilsit. I had experienced vicissitudes, cares, 
and reverses. Eylau had reminded me that fortune 
might abandon me, and I found myself victorious, dic- 
tating peace, with Emperors and Kings to form my court. 
After all, that is not a real enjoyment. Perhaps I was 
really more happy after my Italian victories, hearing the 
people raise their voices, only to bless their liberator, 
and all that at twenty-five years of age ! From that 
time, I saw what I might become. I already saw the 
world flying beneath me, as if I had been carried through 
the air." 

" The Duke of Wellington," said Napoleon, " has 
been called a human butcher, he is especially blamed for 
his assault of Badajos. However, it remains to be calcu- 
lated whether it is better to attack thus, whether the 
loss is less from the butchery of a day than by the daily, 
though comparatively insensible loss, of the ordinary 
course of a siege ; and then the time gained is immense." 

After reading Buffon, he said, " They may say what 
they like, everything is organized matter. The tree is 
the first link of the chain, man is the last. Men are 
young, the earth is old. Vegetable and animal chemistry 
are still in their infancy. Electricity, galvanism, what 
discoveries in a few years ! " 

Of the bust of Napoleon's son, which had been sent 
to St. Helena in the Baring, Napoleon, who by some 
means had heard of its arrival some days previously 



102 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

(10 June, 1817), said to O'Meara, " I intended if it had 
not been sent me, to have made such a complaint as 
would have caused every Englishman's hair to stand on 
end with horror. I would have told a tale which would 
have made the mothers of England execrate him (Sir 
Hudson Lowe) as a monster in human shape." 

On November 23rd (1817), Napoleon wrote on the 
back of a letter of Sir Hudson Lowe to Count Bertrand 
(bearing date November 18th, 1817, and repudiating 
the defamatory statements made against him) : " This 
letter, and those of the 26th of July, and 26th of Octo- 
ber last, are full of falsehoods. I have confined myself 
to my room for eighteen months, in order to secure my- 
self against the insults of this officer. At present my 
health is impaired ; it no longer admits of my reading 
such disgusting writings ; send me no more of them. 
Whether this officer thinks himself authorized by the 
verbal and secret instructions of his minister, as he gives 
out, or he acts on his own impulse, which is probable 
from the pains he takes to fret himself,* I can only treat 
him as my assassin. If they had sent here a man of ho- 
nour I should certainly have had some torments the less, 
but they would have spared themselves the reproaches 
of Europe and of history, which the trashy writings of 
this crafty man cannot deceive." 

Speaking of his brother Joseph to O'Meara, Napoleon 
said, " His virtues and talents were suited to a retired 



* Napoleon appears to have overlooked the fact that he was 
the prime mover in all the fretful and unnecessary quarrels that 
were continually taking place between his household and Sir 
Hudson Lowe. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 103 

life ; nature destined him for it. He is too good to be a 
great man. He has no ambition. He is very like me, 
physically, but he is better than I am. He is extremely 
well informed, but his acquirements are not suited to a 
monarchy. Neither is he capable of commanding an 
army." 

Of Blucher, Napoleon said to O'Meara, "Blucher is 
a very brave soldier, a good swordsman (un bon sabreur) 
He is like a bull who shuts his eyes and rushes forward, 
and sees no danger. He committed millions of faults, 
and if fortune had not favoured him I should have taken 
him prisoner several times, as well as the greater part 
of his army. He is opinionated, indefatigable, fears 
nothing, and is attached to his country ; but as a general 
he is without talent. I remember that when I was in 
Prussia he dined at my table, and was then looked upon 
as a very ordinary man." 

Of the English soldiers, he said on the same occasion, 
" The English soldier is brave, none more so, and the 
officers are in general men of honour ; but, I do not think 
them capable of performing great feats. I think that if I 
were at their head I could make them capable of any- 
thing. However, I do not know enough of them yet to 
form a decided opinion. ... In place of the lash I 
would discipline them by honour. I would excite a 
spirit of emulation in them, and promote them according 
to their deserts. What might not be hoped from the 
English army, if each who behaved well had the chance 
of becoming a general some day ! " 

" Who eat the most ? " Napoleon asked, " the French 
or the English ? " 



104 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

" The French, I think," O'Meara replied. 

" I don't think so," said Napoleon. 

O'Meara answered that it was true that the French 
only took nominally two meals a-day, but that in reality 
they had four. 

" They take only two," he replied. 

" They take something at nine o'clock, at eleven, at 
four, and again at seven or eight in the evening," said 
O'Meara. 

" I never eat more than twice a-day," Napoleon an- 
swered, " but you English always four times a-day. 
Your cuisine is more wholesome than ours, but your 
soup is very bad ; nothing but bread and pepper and 
water. You drink an enormous quantity of wine." 

" Not as much as the French think," was O'Meara's 
answer. 

" Bah ! " Napoleon replied. " Piontkowski, who some- 
times dines in the camp with the officers of the 53rd 
says, that they drink by the hour ; that after the cloth 
is removed they pay so much an hour and drink as 
much as they like, not leaving off sometimes until four 
in the morning." 

" That is so far from being the truth," O'Meara re- 
plied, "that there are officers who do not drink wine more 
than twice a week, and only on the days when strangers 
may be invited." 

" He appeared surprised at this," continues O'Meara, 
"and observed how easily a stranger who had only an 
imperfect acquaintance with a language, might misjudge 
the manners and customs of other nations." 

"A humorous conversation," says O'Meara, "took place 
between us on patron saints. Napoleon asked me who 
was my patron saint ? and after my reply he said : 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 105 

"Saint Napoleon ought to be much obliged to me, and 
place all his credit in the other world to my account. 
The poor devil ! no one knew him once, he had not even 
a day in the calendar. I procured him one, and per- 
suaded the pope to assign to him the 15th of August, 
my birthday. I remember in Italy," he continued, 
" hearing a priest preach on the subject of a poor sinner 
who had quitted this life. He related that his soul ap- 
peared before God and that he was obliged to give an 
account of his actions. The good and evil were then 
cast into the opposite scales of the balance, to see which 
of the two was the heavier. The scale containing the 
good was much lighter, and sprang up immediately. The 
soul of the sinner was then condemned to the infernal 
regions, conducted by angels to the bottomless pit, and 
put into the hands of the devils, who precipitated it into 
the flames. ' Already,' said the priest, ■ the devouring 
element had seized his legs and feet ; it reached his 
chest ; the source of life was gained, oh ! my brothers. 
His head alone at last was above the fiery waves, when 
he thought of addressing himself, first to God, then to 
his patron saint : * O patron,' said he, ' look down upon 
me ; oh ! have pity on my poor soul. Cast into the scale 
with my good actions all the stones that I gave to repair 

the convent of .' His saint immediately heard his 

prayer. He collected all the stones, and threw them 
into the scale with the good, which immediately out- 
weighed that containing the evil, and the soul of the 
sinner went at once to Paradise. 'You see, then, my 
dear brothers,' the priest continued, ' how necessary it 
is to repair convents ; but for the stones which the sin- 
ner gave to rebuild the monastery, his soul would still be 
burning in the fires of hell ; and yet you are so blinded 
that you allow the church and convent that your ances- 



106 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

tors have built to fall in ruins.' At that time," Napoleon 
concluded, laughing, "these canaille wanted their convent 
rebuilt, and that was the expedient resorted to to gain 
money, which poured in upon them from all quarters 
after that." 

" When a man has no confidence in his doctor," said 
Napoleon to O'Meara, " it is useless his having one. 
One cannot command confidence. You ought to look 
upon yourself as belonging to no nation in particular. A 
doctor and a priest should both consider themselves so, 
they ought to be free from all political bias. Treat me 
as if I were an Englishman. Chance has placed you 
near me, and that is why I place confidence in you. If 
I had not chosen you, you know I should have had a 
French doctor, who would have sent in no bulletins 
without my permission. If you attended Lord Bathurst 
should you send bulletins of the state of his health to 
others than those of his own family ? I beg you will 
treat me the same, and set on one side all political con- 
siderations as to what I am and what I have been; 
finally, when I consult you, act as you would act to one 
of your own countrymen who was ill." 

Of Gornwallis, Napoleon said to O'Meara : " Corn- 
wallis was an honest, generous, and sincere man, a very 
brave man. He was the first who gave me a good 
opinion of the English ; his integrity, his fidelity, his 
candour, and the nobility of his sentiments, gave me a 
favourable opinion of you. I remember that Cornwallis 
said one day, 4 There are some qualities that can be ac- 
quired, but a good character, sincerity, a noble pride 
and courage in the midst of danger cannot be ac- 
quired.' These words made an impression on me. At 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 107 

Amiens, I gave him, for amusement, a regiment of 
cavalry, the officers of which liked him much ; I do not 
think he was a man of the first order of merit, but he 
had talent, and was very honest and sincere. He never 
broke his word. At Amiens the treaty was ready, and 
he was to sign it at nine o'clock at the Hotel de Ville. 
Something happened to hinder him from going, but he 
sent word to the French ministers that they might con- 
sider the treaty signed, and that he would sign it the 
next day. A courier arrived that evening from Eng- 
land bringing him an order to refuse his consent to 
certain articles of the treaty, and not to sign it. Al- 
though Cornwallis had not signed it, and could easily 
have taken advantage of this order, he had sufficient 
loyalty to say that he considered his promise equivalent 
to his signature ; he wrote to his Government saying 
that he had promised, and that having once given his 
word he should keep it, that if they were not satisfied 
they could refuse to ratify the treaty. There is a man 
of honour, a true Englishman. It is a man like Corn- 
wallis that they ought to have sent here as a governor, 
instead of such a composition of lying, suspicion, and 
baseness. I was very grieved when I heard of his 
death. Some members of his family wrote to me occa- 
sionally in favour of certain prisoners. I always granted 
what they wished." 

1818. " It has been said," said Napoleon, "that the 
marriage of Marie Louise was one of the secret articles 
of the treaty of Vienna, which had been concluded 
some months before ; that is entirely false. An alliance 
with Austria had never been dreamed of before the 
despatch of Narbonne, which mentioned the overtures 
that the emperor Francis and Metternich had made 



108 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

to him. Indeed this marriage with the Empress Marie 
Louise was proposed in the council, discussed, decided, 
and signed within twenty- four hours ; which fact can 
be attested by a great number of the council still alive. 
Many were of opinion that I should have married a 
Frenchwoman ; and the arguments in favour of this 
proposition were so strong that I hesitated a moment. 
However, the court of Austria insinuated that if I re- 
fused to choose a princess from one of the reigning 
Houses of England, it would be a tacit declaration that 
I intended to overthrow them when an opportunity pre- 
sented itself." 

Speaking of men, Napoleon said, " You do not know 
men ; they are difficult to understand when one wishes 
to be just ; do they know themselves ? do they explain 
themselves ? The greater number of those who aban- 
doned me, had I continued to be fortunate, would not 
have thought themselves capable of such conduct. 
There are the vices and virtues of circumstances ; our 
last experiences are above all human power ; and then 
I have been abandoned rather than betrayed. There 
has been more weakness about me than treachery ; it is 
the denial of St. Peter, repentance and tears may he at 
the gate. Besides that, who in all history had more 
partizans and friends ? Who was more popular and 
more beloved ? Who ever left sharper and more ardent 
regrets ? Kings and princes, my allies, have been 
faithful unto death. They have been taken away by 
the people in a mass ; and those of my own who were 
around me were enveloped and deprived of their senses 
in an irresistible whirlwind. No ; human nature could 
show itself more hideous, and I might have more to 
complain of." 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 109 

" I have often asked myself the question whether I did 
for my unhappy people all that they had a right to 
expect; they did so much for me. History shall de- 
cide. What is very certain is, that I am far from 
shunning its verdict ; I court it. Will that people ever 
know all that the night preceding my final decision cost 
me, that night of uncertainty and anguish ? Two ways 
were left to me. I did right to take the one I did, 
friends and enemies, well intentioned and ill Mentioned, all 
were against me. I was alone. It was time to give up. 
I did so, and once done it was done for ever ; I am not 
for half measures. The other way called for a strange 
vigour. There were great criminals, and heavy punish- 
ments would have been necessary. Blood might flow, 
and then who knows whither we should have been led ? 
and what scenes might have been renewed ? But if at 
this price I had saved the country, I was full of energy, 
but was I certain of success ? Which of the crowd of 
fools surrounding me could I have persuaded that I was 
not working for myself, for my personal advantage ? 
which of them should I have convinced that I was 
disinterested ; that I only fought to save the country ? 
Which of them would have believed all the dangers, all 
the misfortunes from which I sought to free them ? I 
could see them, but as to the common herd they never 
saw them unless they weighed heavily on each. What 
might they have replied to that which was cried : 
Here he is again, the despot, the tyrant ! The day 
after his oaths are made, he breaks them again ! And 
who knows if in all these movements, this inextricable 
complication, I might not have perished by a French 
hand in this citizen conflict. And then what would 
have become of the nation in the eyes of all the world, 
and in the esteem of the remotest generations ? for her 



no TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

glory is to own me. I should not know how to have 
done so many things for her honour, her glory, without 
her, in spite of her. She would make me too great ! 
... I repeat it, history will decide." 

" Bernadotte," said Napoleon, " showed himself un- 
grateful to me, who was the author of his elevation, but 
I cannot say that he betrayed me. He became Swedish 
in some manner, and never promised what he did not 
intend to perform. I can accuse him of ingratitude but 
not of treason. Neither Murat nor he would have de- 
clared against me had they known it would have cost 
me my throne. They desired to weaken my power, not 
to overthrow me entirely. The bravery of Murat was 
so great that the Cossacks were accustomed to relieve 
the feelings it produced in them, by cries of admiration. 
They could not help experiencing a sentiment of respect 
on seeing this man of a noble and imposing figure, ad- 
vancing like an old knight, and performing similar pro- 
digies of valour. Labedoyere was a young man ani- 
mated with the noblest sentiments. He had the most 
sovereign contempt for a race surrounded by all that 
was most foreign to the manners and rights of the 
French, a race given up to a set of miserables, who, not 
to die of hunger, had vegetated for twenty-five years in 
low and degrading conditions. His attachment to me 
was quite enthusiastic, and he declared himself in my 
favour at the moment of the greatest danger." 

Napoleon said to O'Meara when the latter was leaving 
St. Helena, " When you arrive in Europe, you will go 
yourself, or send some one to my brother Joseph. You 
will let him know that I wish him to give you the 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. in 

packet containing the private and confidential letters,* 
that the emperors Alexander and Francis, the king of 
Prussia, and the other sovereigns of Europe addressed 
to me, and which I gave to him at Rochfort. You 
will publish them to cove?* with shame those sovereigns, 
and to let the world see, the abject homage these 
vassals paid me when they asked favours, or begged 
me to leave them their thrones. When I was powerful 
and strong, they craved my protection and the honour of 
my alliance ; they licked the dust under my feet. Now, 
they oppress me in my old age, they take away my wife 
and child. I beg you to do this for me, and if you 
hear any public calumnies against me while you have 
been here with me, and you can say, ' I know of my 
own knowledge that that is not true,' contradict them." 

1819. The following trifling circumstance will serve 
to show how sensitive Napoleon was on the subject of 
the slightest intrusion at Longwood, and how little he 
was disposed to show any civility to Mr. Baxter. Mr. 
Baxter having been invited to dine at Lono-wood on the 
8th of December, with Captain Nicholls and Dr. Verling, 
went there about 6 o'clock in the evening, in company 
with Major Power. They both went to look at the 
new building that was going on, and saw Napoleon at 
the window going and returning. A few days after, 
Count Montholon called on Captain Nicholls with the 
following message : " Tell the orderly officer that a few 
days ago I saw Dr. Baxter walking round my house, 
that I conceive his doing so an indelicate intrusion after 



* Unfortunately, says O'Meara, all the efforts I made to ob- 
tain these important papers, on my return to Europe were 
unsuccessful. 



n* TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

the communication respecting that person, and the pro- 
testations I some time since made against receiving him 
as my medical attendant ; and that I desire that the 
orderly officer will in future prevent Dr. Baxter from 
walking about my residence ; and further, should Dr. 
Baxter think fit to make a bulletin of the state of my 
health in consequence, I protest against such pro- 
ceedings." 

Of the Saviour Napoleon said, in conversation with 
General Bertrand, " I know men, and I tell you that 
Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a re- 
semblance between Christ and the founders of empires, 
and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does 
not exist. There is between Christianity and all other 
religions whatsoever, the distance of infinity. 

" To the authors of every other religion we can say, 
You are neither gods nor the agents of deity. You are 
but missionaries of falsehood, moulded from the same 
clay with the rest of mortals. You are made with all 
the passions and vices inseparable from them. Your 
temples and your priests proclaim your origin. Such 
will be the judgment, the cry of conscience of whoever 
examines the gods and the temples of paganism. 

" Paganism was never accepted as truth by the wise 
men of Greece, neither by Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, 
Anaxagoras, nor Pericles. But, on the other side, the 
loftiest intellects, since the advent of Christianity have 
had faith, a living faith, a practical faith, in the mysteries 
and doctrines of the gospel ; not only Bossuet and Fene- 
lon, who were preachers, but Descartes and Newton, 
Leibnitz and Pascal, Corneille and Racine, Charlemagne 
and Louis XIV. Paganism is the work of man. One 
can here read but our imbecility. What do these gods, so 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 113 

boastful, know more than other mortals ? these legisla- 
tors, Greek or Roman ? this Numa, this Lycurgus ? 
these priests of India or of Memphis ? this Confucius, 
this Mohammed ? Absolutely nothing. They have 
made a perfect chaos of morals. There is not one among 
them all who has said anything new in reference to our 
future destiny, to the soul, to the essence of God, to the 
creation. Enter the sanctuaries of Paganism — you there 
find perfect chaos, a thousand contradictions, war be- 
tween the gods, the immobility of sculpture, the division 
and the rending of unity, the parceling out of the divine 
attributes, mutilated or denied . in their essence, the 
6ophisms of ignorance and presumption, polluted fetes, 
impurity and abomination adored, all sorts of corruption 
festering in the thick shades, with the rotten wood, the 
idol, and his priest. Does this honour God, or does it 
dishonour him ? Are these religions and these gods to 
be compared with Christianity ? As for me I say, No. 
I summon entire Olympus to my tribunal. I judge the 
gods, but am far from prostrating myself before their 
vain images. The gods, the legislators of India and of 
China, of Rome and of Athens, have nothing which can 
overawe me. Not that I am unjust to them ; no, I appre- 
ciate them, because I know their value. Undeniably, 
princes whose existence is fixed in the memory as an 
image of order and of power, as the ideal of force 
and beauty, such princes were no ordinary men. 

"I see in Lycurgus, Numa, and Mohammed only legis- 
lators, who, having the first rank in the state, have 
60ught the best solution of the social problem ; but I see 
nothing there which reveals divinity. They themselves 
have never raised their pretensions so high. As for me, 
I recognize the gods and these great men as beings like 
myself. They have performed a lofty part in their 



ii4 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

times, as I have done. Nothing announces them 
divine. On the contrary, there are numerous resem- 
blances between them and myself, foibles and errors 
which ally them to me and to humanity. 

" It is not so with Christ. Everything in Him aston- 
ishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will con- 
founds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world 
there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a 
being by himself, his ideas and his sentiments, the 
truths which He announces, his manner of convincing, 
are not explained either by human organization or by 
the nature of things. 

" His birth, and the history of his life; the profundity 
of his doctrine, which grapples the mightiest difficulties, 
and which is of those difficulties the most admirable 
solution ; his gospel, his apparition, his empire, his 
march across the ages and the realms, everything is to 
me a prodigy, an insoluble mystery, which plunges me 
into a reverie from which I cannot escape, a mystery 
which is there before my eyes, a mystery which I can 
neither deny nor explain. Here I see nothing human. 

" The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine ; 
everything is above me, everything remains grand — of 
a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revela- 
tion from an intelligence which certainly is not that of 
man. In it is a profound originality which has created 
a series of words and maxims before unknown. Jesus 
borrowed nothing from our sciences. One-can absolutely 
find nowhere, but in him alone, the imitation or the ex- 
ample of his life. He is not a philosopher, since he ad- 
vances by miracles, and from the first his disciples wor- 
shipped him. He persuades them far more by an appeal 
to the heart than by any display of method and of logic. 
Neither did he impose upon them any preliminary studies, 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 115 

or any knowledge of letters. All his religion consists in 
believing. 

" In fact, the sciences and philosophy avail nothing for 
salvation ; and Jesus came into the world to reveal the 
mysteries of heaven, and the laws of the Spirit. Also, he 
has nothing to do but with the soul, and to that alone He 
brings his Gospel. The soul is sufficient for him as he is 
sufficient for the soul. Before Him the soul was nothing. 
Matter and time were the masters of the world. At his 
voice everything returns to order. Science and philosophy 
become secondary. The soul has reconquered its sover- 
eignty. All the scholastic scaffolding falls, as a ruined 
edifice, before one single word — -faith. What a master 
and what a word which can effect such a revolution ! 
With what authority does he teach men to pray ! He 
imposes his belief, and no one, thus far, has been able 
to contradict him ; first, because the Gospel contains 
the purest morality, and also because the doctrine 
which it contains of obscurity, is only the procla- 
mation and the truth of that which exists where no 
eye can see and no reason can penetrate. Who is the 
insensate man who will say no to the intrepid voyager 
who recounts the marvels of the icy peaks which he 
alone has had the boldness to visit ? Christ is that bold 
voyager. One can doubtless remain incredulous, but no 
one can venture to say it is not so. 

" Moreover, consult the philosophers upon those mys- 
terious questions which relate to the essence of man and 
to the essence of religion. What is their response ? 
Where is the man of good sense who has ever learned 
anything from the system of metaphysics, ancient or 
modern, which is truly a vain and pompous ideology 
without any connection with our domestic life, with our 
passions ? Unquestionably, with skill in thinking, one 



n6 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

can seize the key of the philosophy of Socrates and 
Plato ; but to do this it is necessary to be a metaphy- 
sician ; and moreover with years of study one must 
possess special aptitude. But good sense alone, the 
heart, an honest spirit, are sufficient to comprehend 
Christianity. 

" The Christian religion is neither ideology nor meta- 
physics, but a practical rule which directs the actions of 
man, corrects him, counsels him, and assists him in all 
his conduct. The Bible contains a complete series of 
facts, and of historical men to explain time and eternity, 
such as no other religion has to offer. If this is not 
the true religion, one is very excusable in being deceived, 
for everything in it is grand and worthy of God. I 
search in vain in history to find a parallel to Jesus 
Christ, or anything which can approach the Gospel. 
Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, 
can offer me anything with which I am able to compare 
it or explain it. Here everything is extraordinary. 
The more I consider the Gospel the more I am assured 
that there is nothing there which is not beyond the 
march of events, and above the human mind. Even the 
impious themselves have never dared to deny the sub- 
limity of the Gospel, which inspires them with a sort of 
compulsory veneration. What happiness that book pro- 
cures for those who believe it! What marvels those 
who reflect upon it admire in it ! The only book where 
the mind finds a moral beauty before unknown, and an 
idea of the Supreme superior even to that which crea- 
tion suggests ! Who but God could produce that type, 
that ideal of perfection, equally exclusive and original. 

" Christ, having but a few weak disciples, was con- 
demned to death. He died the object of the wrath of 
the Jewish priests and of the contempt of the nation, 
abandoned and denied by his own disciples. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 117 

" ' They are about to take me and to crucify me,' said 
He, ' I shall be abandoned of all the world. My chief 
disciple will deny me at the commencement of my 
punishment. I shall be left to the wicked. But then 
divine justice being satisfied, original sin being expiated 
by my sufferings, the bond of man to God will be re- 
newed, and my death will be the life of my disciples. 
Then they will be more strong without me than with 
me, for they will see me rise again, I shall ascend to the 
skies, and I shall send to them from heaven a Spirit who 
will instruct them. The spirit of the cross will enable 
them to understand my Gospel. In fine, they will be- 
lieve it, they will preach it, and they will convert the 
world.' 

"And this strange promise so aptly called by Paul the 
'foolishness of the cross,' this prediction of one miserably 
crucified, is literally accomplished, and the mode of the 
accomplishment is perhaps more prodigious than the 
promise. 

" It is not a day nor a battle which has decided it. Is 
it the lifetime of a man ? No ! It is a war, a long 
combat of three hundred years, commenced by the 
apostles and continued by their successors and by suc- 
ceeding generations of Christians. In this conflict all 
the kings and all the forces of the earth were arrayed 
on one side. Upon the other I see no army, but a 
mysterious energy, individuals scattered here and there 
in all parts of the globe, having no other rallying sign 
than a common faith in the mysteries of the cross. 

" What a mysterious symbol ! the instrument of the 
punishment of the Man- God. His disciples were 
armed with it. ' The Christ,' they said, ' God has died 
for the salvation of men.' What a strife, what a 
tempest these simple words have raised around the 



n8 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

humble standard of the sufferings of the Man- God ! 
On the one side we see rage and all the furies of hatred 
and violence ; on the other there is gentleness, moral 
courage, infinite resignation. For three hundred years 
spirit struggled against the brutality of sense, the con- 
science against despotism, the soul against the body, 
virtue against all the vices. The blood of Christians 
flowed in torrents. They died kissing the hand which 
slew them. The soul alone protested while the, body 
surrendered itself to all tortures. Everywhere Chris- 
tians fell, and everywhere they triumphed. 

" You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their con- 
quests, and of the enthusiasm they enkindled in the 
hearts of their soldiers ; but can you conceive of a dead 
man making conquests with an army faithful and en- 
tirely devoted to his memory ? My armies have for- 
gotten me, even while living, as the Carthaginian army 
forgot Hannibal. Such is our power ! A single battle 
lost crushes us, and adversity scatters our friends. 

" Can you conceive of Caesar, the eternal emperor 
of the Roman senate, from the depths of his mauso- 
leum governing the empire, watching over the destinies 
of Rome ? Such is the history of the invasion and 
conquest of the world by Christianity. Such is the 
power of the God of the Christians, and such is the 
perpetual miracle of the progress of the faith and of the 
government of his church. Nations pass away, thrones 
crumble, but the Church remains. What is then the 
power which has protected this Church thus assailed 
by the furious billows of rage and the hostility of ages ? 
Where is the arm which, for eighteen hundred years 
has protected the Church from so many storms which 
have threatened to engulf it ? 

" In every other existence but that of Christ how 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. n 9 

many imperfections ! Where is the character which 
has not yielded, vanquished by obstacles ? Where is 
the individual who has never been governed by circum- 
stances or places, who has never succumbed to the in- 
fluence of the times, who has never compounded with 
any customs or passions ? From the first day to the 
last he is the same, always the same, majestic and 
simple, infinitely firm and infinitely gentle. Truth 
should embrace the universe. Such is Christianity, the 
only religion which destroys sectional prejudice, the 
only one which proclaims the unity and the absolute 
brotherhood of the whole human family, the only one 
which is purely spiritual — in fine, the only one which 
assigns to all without distinction for a true country the 
bosom of the creator God. Christ proved that he was 
the Son of the Eternal by his disregard of Time. All his 
doctrines signify one and the same thing — Eternity. 

" It is true that Christ proposed to our faith a series 
of mysteries. He commands with authority that we 
should believe them, giving no other reason than those 
tremendous words ' / am GodS He declares it. What 
an abyss he creates by that declaration between himself 
and all the fabricators of religion ! What audacity, 
what sacrilege, what blasphemy if it were not true ! I 
say more, the universal triumph of an affirmation of 
that kind, if the triumph were not really that of God 
himself, would be a plausible excuse, aud a reason for 
atheism. 

" Moreover, in propounding mysteries Christ is har- 
monious with nature, which is profoundly mysterious. 
From whence do I come ? whither do I go ? who am I ? 
Human life is a mystery in its origin, its organization, 
and its end. In man and out of man, in nature, every- 
thing is mysterious. And can one wish that religion 



2 20 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

should not be mysterious? The creation and the 
destiny of the world are an unfathomable abyss, as also 
is the creation and the destiny of each individual. 
Christianity, at least, does not evade these great ques- 
tions. It meets them boldly. And our doctrines are a 
solution of them for every one who believes. 

" The Gospel possesses a secret virtue, a mysterious 
efficacy, a warmth which penetrates and soothes the 
heart. One finds in meditating upon it, that which one 
experiences in contemplating the heavens. The Gospel 
is not a book; it is a living being, with an action, a 
power which invades everything that opposes its ex- 
tension. Behold it upon this table, this Book surpassing 
all others " (here he solemnly placed his hand upon it) ; 
" I never omit to read it, and every day with the same 
pleasure. Nowhere is to be found such a series of 
beautiful ideas, admirable moral maxims, which defile 
like the battalions of a celestial army, and which pro- 
duce in our soul the same emotion which one expe- 
riences, in contemplating the infinite expanse of the 
skies, resplendent in a summer's night with all the 
brilliance of the stars. Not only is our mind absorbed, 
it is controlled, and the soul can never go astray with 
this book for its guide. Once master of our spirit, the 
faithful Gospel loves us. God even is our friend, our 
father, and truly our God. The mother has no greater 
care for the infant whom she nurses. 

" What a proof of the divinity of Christ ! With an 
empire so absolute, he has but one single end, the 
spiritual amelioration of individuals, the purity of con- 
science, the union to that which is true, the holiness of 
the soul. 

"Christ speaks, and at once generations become his 
by stricter, closer ties than those of blood — by the most 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 121 

sacred, the most indissoluble of all ties. He lights up 
the flame of love which consumes self-love, which pre- 
vails over every other love. The founders of other 
religions never conceived of this mystical love, which is 
the essence of Christianity, and is beautifully called 
charity. In every attempt to effect this thing, namely, 
to make himself beloved, man deeply feels his own im- 
potence. So that Christ's greatest miracle undoubtedly 
is the reign of charity. 

" I have so inspired multitudes that they would die 
for me. God forbid that I should form any comparison 
between the enthusiasm of the soldier and Christian 
charity, which are as unlike as their cause. But after 
all, my presence was necessary ; the lightning of my eye, 
my voice, a word from me, then the sacred fire was kin- 
dled in their hearts. I do, indeed, possess the secret of 
this magical power, which lifts the soul ; but I could 
never impart it to any one. None of my generals ever 
learned it from me ; nor have I the means of perpetua- 
ting my name, and love for me, in the hearts of men, 
and to effect these things without physical means. 

" Now that I am at St. Helena, — now that I am alone, 
chained upon this rock, who fights and wins empires for 
me? who are the courtiers of my misfortune, who 
thinks of me ? who makes efforts for me in Europe ? 
Where are my friends ? Yes, two or three whom your 
fidelity immortalizes, you share, you console my exile." 

Here the voice of the Emperor trembled with emo- 
tion, and for a moment he was silent. Then he con- 
tinued : 

" Yes, our life once shone with all the brilliance of 
the diadem and the throne ; and yours, Bertrand, re- 
flected that splendour, as the dome of the Invalides, gilt 
by us, reflects the rays of the sun. But disasters came ; 



122 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

the gold gradually became dim. The ruin of misfortune 
and outrage with which I am daily deluged has effaced 
all the brightness. We are mere lead now, General Ber - 
trand and I shall soon be in the grave. 

" Such is the fate of great men ! So it was with 
Caesar and Alexander. And I too am forgotten. And 
the name of a conqueror and an emperor is a college 
theme. Our exploits are tasks given to pupils by their 
tutor, who sit in judgment upon us, awarding censure or 
praise. And mark what is soon to become of me ! assas- 
sinated by the English oligarchy, I die before my time ; 
and my dead body, too, must return to the earth, to be- 
come food for worms. Behold the destiny near at hand 
of him who has been called the great Napoleon ! What 
an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal reign 
of Christ, which is proclaimed, loved, adored, and which 
is extending over all the earth. Is this to die ? Is it 
not rather to live ? The death of Christ ! It is the 
death of God." Turning to General Bertrand : " If you 
do not perceive that Jesus Christ is God, very well ; 
then I did wrong to make you a general." 

When little Arthur Bertrand was inclined to be 
bad-tempered, Napoleon said to Dr. Antommarchi : 
" This little fellow is as independent as I was at his age ; 
but the fits of passion to which I gave way proceeded 
from more excusable motives : I leave you to judge. I 
had been placed in a school of young ladies, the mistress 
of which was known to our family ; and being a pretty 
boy and the only one there, I was caressed by every one 
of my fair schoolfellows. I might generally be seen with 
my stockings half over my shoes ; and in our walks I 
constantly held the hand of a charming little girl, who 
was the cause of many broils and quarrels. My malicious 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 123 

comrades, jealous of my Giacominetta, combined these 
two circumstances together in a song which they made, 
and whenever I appeared in the street, they followed 
me singing : 

* Napoleone di mezza calzetta 
Fa 1'amore a Giacominetta.'* 

I could not bear to be laughed at ; and seizing sticks or 
stones, or anything that came in my way, I rushed into 
the midst of the crowd. Fortunately, it always happened 
that somebody interfered, and got me out of the scrape ; 
but the number opposed to me never stopped me. I 
never reckoned how many they were." 

Speaking to Antommarchi of the battle of Marengo, 
and mentioning that the Austrian cavalry was half a 
league off, and required a quarter of an hour to arrive 
on the field of action, he said : " T have observed that it 
is always those quarters of an hour that decide the fate 
of a battle." 

"At the height at which we are (2,000 feet) vegeta- 
tion and life cease," said Napoleon to the Doctor. 
" British magnanimity had its motives for hoisting me 
up here." 

"Doctor," said Napoleon, "where is France and its 
cheerful climate ? If I could but see it once more ! If 
I could but breathe a little air that had passed over that 
happy country ! What a specific is the soil that gave us 
birth ! Antseus renewed his strength by touching the 
earth ; and I feel that this prodigy would be repeated in 

* Napoleon, with stockings half down, makes love to Giaco- 
minetta. 



124 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

me, and that I should revive on perceiving our coasts. 
Our coasts ! Ah ! I had forgotten that cowardice has 
taken victory by surprise ; its decisions are without 
appeal." 

" My father," said Napoleon, " who was far from being 
religiously inclined, and who had even composed some 
anti-religious poetry, no sooner saw the grave half 
opened, than he became passionately fond of priests ! 
He wished for them — called for them ; there were 
not priests enough in Montpellier to satisfy him. A 
change so sudden, which, however, occurs in the case of 
every individual labouring under a serious illness, can 
only be accounted for by the disorder into which the 
disease throws the human frame. The organs become 
blunted, their reaction ceases, the moral faculties are 
shaken ; the head is gone, and thence the desire for con- 
fession, oremuses, and all the fine things, without which, 
it seems, we cannot die. But see man in the plenitude 
of his powers ; see those columns ready to march on the 
field of battle ; the drum beats the charge — they rush 
forward — the cannon roars — they fall ; and priests and 
confession are out of the question." 

" I was called Napoleon," he said, " the name which 
for centuries past was given to the second sons of our 
family, in order to perpetuate the remembrance of our 
connection with a certain Napoleon des Ursins, celebrated 
in the ' Eecords of Italy,'" (p. 269, vol. i). 

" Here," said Napoleon to the Doctor, " place this 
child (the portrait of his son) by the side of his mother ; 
there nearer to the mantel-piece. That is Maria Louisa. 
She holds her son in her arms. The two others are 
portraits of Josephine. I loved her tenderly. The or- 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 125 

naments of my mantel -piece are, as you see, not very 
sumptuous. The bust of my son, two candlesticks, two 
gilt cups, two vials of Cologne water, a pair of scissors, 
and a small glass, are all it contains. This is no longer 
the splendour of the Tuileries. But no matter. If I am 
decayed in my power, I am not in my glory. I preserve 
all my recollections. Few sovereigns have immolated 
themselves for their people. A sacrifice so immense is 
not without its charms." 

" If St. Helena were France, I should love even this 
frightful rock." 

Napoleon occasionally sent for General Bertrand's 
children. After they had left he would say : 

44 How happy they are when I send for them or play 
with them ! All their wishes are satisfied. Passions 
have not yet approached their hearts. They feel the 
plenitude of existence. Let them enjoy it. At their 
age I thought and felt as they do. But what storms 
since ! How much that little Hortensia grows and im- 
proves ! If she lives, of how many young elegans will 
she not disturb the repose ? I shall then be no more." 

44 We men," said Napoleon, on one occasion, when 
Madame Bertrand was ill ; " 4 we men are accustomed to 
pains and privations, and can bear them ; but a woman 
deprived all at once of everything that tends to render 
life cheerful and agreeable, transported to a frightful 
rock, how much more is she to be pitied, and how much 
resignation she requires ! Madame Bertrand, in conse- 
quence of her illness, rises late. She cannot attend 
mass, and yet she would perhaps be glad to hear it said. 
I did not reflect that she is an invalid, when I fixed the 



126 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

hour of the service. I only considered the great age of 
the good old abbe. Tell her that I order Vignali to go 
and officiate at her house. Let her inform Vignali of 
the hour that suits her. He may construct a moveable 
altar or use ours. Any person may go to that mass whouf 
the countess thinks proper to admit." 

" Tell me," said Napoleon to Dr. Antommarchi, " you, 
who have searched the human frame in all its windings, 
have you ever met with the soul under your scalpel ? 
Where does the soul reside ? In what organ ? Why is 
it that physicians do not believe in God ? Mathematicians 
are generally religious." 

Discussing the dogmas of what is called Legitimacy, 
" What ridiculous pretensions," said Napoleon, " what 
contradictions ! Are these principles of legitimacy in con- 
formity with the Scripture — with the laws and maxims 
of religion ? Are nations simple enough to believe 
themselves the property of a family ? Was David, who 
dethroned Saul, a legitimate ? Had he any other rights 
than those he derived from the consent of his nation. 
In France, various families have succeeded each other 
on the throne, and have formed several dynasties, either 
by the wiil of the people, represented in their assemblies, 
or by the votes of the parliaments composed of barons 
and bishops, who, at that period, represented the nation. 
How many families have also successively occupied 
the throne of England. The house of Hanover, which 
succeeded the prince it dethroned, now reigns, because 
such was the will of the ancestors of these touchy people 
who thought this change of government absolutely 
necessary to the preservation of their interests, and of 
their political and religious rights. Some of the old men 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 127 

still living have witnessed the efforts made by the last 
branch of the Stuarts to land in Scotland, where they 
were seconded by those whose ideas and sentiments were 
conformable to their own. The attempt was opposed, 
and the Stuarts expulsed by an immense majority of the 
people, whose new interests and opinions were opposed 
to those of that degenerate family." 

On the 26th of July, as he was reclining on a sofa, he 
said to Antommarchi, u You, doctor, are strongly at- 
tached to me. You regard not contrarieties, pain, and 
fatigue when you cannot relieve my sufferings ; yet all 
that is not maternal solicitude. Ah ! Mamma Letitia," 
he exclaimed, burying his face in his hands. 

" When I was a child," Napoleon confided to Antom- 
marchi, " I was noisy and quarrelsome, and feared no- 
body. But the affection of Mamma Letitia was tem- 
pered by severity. She punished and rewarded without 
partiality. Nothing we did, either good or evil, was lost. 
She watched over her children with unexampled care ; 
discarding and stamping with disgrace every ignoble sen- 
timent and affection, and only allowing our young minds 
to imbibe impressions of what was great and elevated. 
She abhorred falsehood, punished disobedience, and did 
not allow any fault to pass unnoticed." 

1820. " When my health is restored," said Napoleon to 
Antommarchi, " I shall restore you to your studies, you 
shall proceed to Europe and publish your works. I will not 
suffer you to waste your existence on this horrible rock. 
You have told me, if I recollect rightly, that you do not 
know France. You will then see that country. You will 
see the canals and monuments with which I covered it 



128 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

during the time of my power. The duration of that 
power has been like that of a flash of lightning. But no 
matter, it is filled with useful institutions. 

" I have hallowed the revolution by infusing into it 
our laws. My code is the sheet-anchor which will save 
France, and entitle me to the benedictions of posterity. 
The plan of levelling the Alps was one of the first formed 
at the commencement of my career. I had entered 
Italy, and finding that the communications with Paris 
occupied a considerable time, and were attended with 
much difficulty, I endeavoured to render them quicker, 
and resolved to open them through the valley of the 
Rhone. I also wished to render that river navigable, 
and blow up the rock under which it engulfs and disap- 
pears. I sent engineers to the spot. The expense 
would have been inconsiderable, and I submitted the 
plan to the Directory. But we were carried away by 
events. I went to Egypt and no one thought any more 
about it. 

" On my return I took it up again. I had dismissed 
the lawyers, and having no more obstacles in my way, 
we applied our hammers to the Alps. We executed 
what the Romans had not dared to try, and traced 
through blocks of granite, a solid and spacious road, 
capable of resisting the efforts of time." 

" Doctor, what a delightful thing rest is ! The bed 
has become a place of luxury to me ! I would not 
exchange it for all the thrones in the world. What an 
alteration ! How fallen am I ! I, whose activity was 
boundless, whose mind never slumbered, am now plunged 
in a lethargic stupor and must make an effort, even to 
raise my eyelids. I sometimes dictated upon different 
subjects to four or five secretaries who wrote as fast as 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 129 

words could be uttered ; but then I was Napoleon, now 
I am no longer anything. My strength, my faculties 
forsake me. I do not live ; I merely exist." 

" You are aware, Doctor" (to Antommarchi), " that 
the art of healing consists only in lulling and calming 
the imagination. That is the reason why the ancients 
dressed up in robes and adopted a costume striking and 
imposing. That costume you have unadvisedly aban- 
doned ; and in so doing you have exposed the imposture 
of Galen, and no longer exercise the same powerful in- 
fluence over your patients. Who knows whether, if you 
were suddenly to appear before me with an enormous wig, 
a cap, and a long train, I should not take you for the god 
of health ! whereas you are only the god of medicines." * 

1821. On the 16th of April Napoleon wrote a codicil 
to his will as follows : " 1st. I desire that my ashes shall 
repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the 
French people whom I loved so much. 

" 2nd. I bequeath to Counts Bertrand and Montholon, 
and to Marchand, the money, jewels, silver, china, fur- 
niture, books, arms, and all that belongs to me at St. 
Helena. This codicil written entirely by my hand, is 
signed and sealed with my arms. 

" (Seal) Napoleon." 

" The priests were the class of men that gave me the 
least trouble," Napoleon said. " They were at first all 
against me ; I allowed them to wear violet-coloured 
stockings, and from that moment they were all for me." 

" Ferdinand of Spain," said the Emperor, " is a man 
incapable of governing himself, and of course he is 

* See note. 

K 



130 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

incapable of governing the Peninsula.* As for the re- 
volution in Naples, I must confess that I did not expect 
it. Who would ever have supposed that a set of 
Maccheronai would ape the Spaniards, proclaim their 
principles, and rival them in courage ? No doubt that, 
of the two Ferdinands, one is not better than the other. 
But the question does not turn upon them, it is upon their 
respective nations, and between these there is so great 
a difference in point of energy and elevation of senti- 
ment, that either the Neapolitans are mad, or this 
movement of theirs is the forerunner of a general in- 
surrection. In the presence, as they are, of the rulers 
of Italy, what can they do if they are not supported by 
some great nation ? If they are thus supported, I 
applaud their patriotism ; but if it be otherwise, how 
much I pity my good and dear Italians ! They will be 
immolated, and the sacrifice of their generous blood will 
not benefit the beautiful soil which gave them birth. I 
pity them. Unfortunate people! they are distributed 
in groups, divided, separated among a parcel of princes 
who only serve to excite aversions, to dissolve the ties 
which unite them, and to prevent them from agreeing 
together and co-operating with each other for the at- 
tainment of their common liberty. It was that tribe- 
like spirit I was endeavouring to destroy. It was with 
a view to gain this object that I annexed part of Italy 
to France, and formed a kingdom of the other part. I 
wanted to eradicate local habits, partial and narrow 
views, to model the inhabitants after our manners, to 
accustom them to our laws, and then to unite them 
together, and restore them to the ancient glory of Italy. 

* On the arrival at St. Helena of the intelligence of the re- 
volutionary movements in Spain and Naples. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 131 

" I proposed to make of all these states thus agglome- 
rated a compact and independent power, over which my 
second son would have reigned, and of which Rome 
restored and embellished would have been the capital. 
I should have removed Murat from Naples. From the 
sea to the Alps only one sway would have been ac- 
knowledged. I had already commenced the execution 
of that plan which I had formed with a view to the 
interest of Italy. AYorkmen were already engaged in 
clearing Rome of its ruins, and in draining the Pontine 
Marshes. But war, the circumstances in which I was 
placed, and the sacrifices I was obliged to ask of the 
people, did not allow me to do for them what I wished. 
Such, my dear doctor, were the motives which stopped 
me. 

"Ah! doctor, what recollections, what epochs, that 
beautiful Italy recalls to my mind. Methinks the mo- 
ment is only just gone by when I took £he command of 
the army which conquered it. I was young, like you. 
I possessed your vivacity, your ardour. I felt the con- 
sciousness of my powers, and burned to enter the lists. 
I had already given proof of what I could do. My 
aptitude was not contested, but my youth displeased 
those old soldiers who had grown gray on the field of 
battle. Perceiving this I felt the necessity of compen- 
sating the disadvantage by an austerity of principles 
from which I never departed. Brilliant actions were 
required to conciliate the confidence and affection of the 
military, and I performed some. We marched, and 
everything vanished at our approach. My name was 
soon as dear to the people as to the soldiers. I could 
not be insensible to this unanimity of homage, and be- 
came indifferent to everything short of glory. The air 
resounded with acclamations on my passage. Every- 



1 32 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

thing was at my disposal. But I only thought of my 
brave soldiers, of France, and of posterity." 

" Music," said Napoleon, " of all the liberal arts has 
the greatest influence over the passions, and is that to 
which the legislator ought to give the greatest en- 
couragement. A well-composed song strikes the mind 
and softens the feelings, and produces a greater effect 
than a moral work, which convinces our reason, but 
does not warm our feelings, nor effect the slightest 
alteration in our habits." 

" It is almost beyond my power to take medicines," 
said Napoleon. " The aversion I feel for them is almost 
inconceivable. I exposed myself to dangers with in- 
difference. I saw death without emotion ; but I cannot, 
notwithstanding all my efforts, approach my lips to a 
cup containing the slightest preparation. True it is 
that I am a spoiled child, who has never had anything 
to do with physic." Then turning to Madame Bertrand, 
who was very ill, he said, " How do you manage to take 
all those pills and drugs which the doctor is constantly 
prescribing for you?" 

" I take them," she answered, " without thinking 
about it, and I advise your majesty to do the same." 

He shook his head, and asked General Montholon the 
same question, receiving a similar answer. 

" I am then," he said, " the only one who rebels 
against medicine. I will do so no longer. Give me the 
stuff." He seized the cup, as if afraid that his determi- 
nation would fail, and swallowed the dose. 

To Count Montholon Napoleon dictated the follow- 
ing counsel for his son : — 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 133 

" My son should not think of avenging my death. He 
should profit by it. Let the remembrance of what I 
have done never leave his mind. Let him always be 
like me, every inch a Frenchman. The aim of all his 
efforts should be to reign by peace. If he should 
recommence my wars out of pure love of imitation, and 
without any absolute necessity, he would be a mere ape. 
To do my work over again would be to suppose that I 
had done nothing. To complete it, on the contrary, 
would be to show the solidity of the basis, and explain 
the whole plan of an edifice which I had only roughly 
sketched. The same thing is not done twice in a cen- 
tury. I was obliged to daunt Europe by my arms. In 
the present day the way is to convince her. I saved the 
revolution which was about to perish. I raised it from 
its ruins and showed it to the world beaming with glory. 
I have implanted new ideas in France and in Europe. 
They cannot retrograde. Let my son bring into blossom 
all that I have sown. Let him develop all the elements 
of prosperity enclosed in the soil of France, and by these 
means he may yet be a great sovereign. 

" The Bourbons will not maintain their position after 
my death. A reaction in my favour will take place 
everywhere, even in England. This reaction will be a 
fine inheritance for my son. It is possible that the 
English, in order to efface tne remembrance of their 
persecutions, will favour my son's return to France. 
But in order to live in a good understanding with Eng- 
land, it is necessary at any cost to favour her com- 
mercial interests. This necessity leads to one of these 
two consequences — war with England, or a sharing of 
the commerce of the world with her. This second 
condition is the only one possible in the present day. 
The exterior question will long take precedence in 



134 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

France of the interior. I bequeath to my son sufficient 
strength and sympathy to enable him to continue my 
work with the single aid of an elevated and conciliatory 
diplomacy. 

" His position at Vienna is deplorable. Will Austria 
set him at liberty unconditionally? But after all, 
Francis I. was once in a more critical position, and yet 
his French nationality was nothing impaired by it. Let 
not my son ever mount the throne by the aid of foreign 
influence. His aim should be not to fulfil a desire to 
reign, but to deserve the approbation of posterity. Let 
him cherish an intimacy with my family, whenever it 
shall be in his power. My mother is a woman of the 
old school. Joseph and Eugene are able to give him 
good counsel. Hortense and Catherine are superior 
women. If he remains in exile, let him marry one of 
my nieces. If France recalls him, let him seek the 
hand of a Princess of Russia. This court is the only 
one where family ties rule policy. The alliance which 
he may contract should tend to increase the exterior 
influence of France, and not to introduce a foreign in- 
fluence into its councils. The French nation, when it 
is not taken the wrong way, is more easily governed 
than any other. Its prompt and easy comprehension is 
unequalled. It immediately discerns who labours for 
and who against it. But then it is necessary always to 
speak to its senses, otherwise its uneasy spirit gnaws ; it 
explodes and ferments. My son will arrive after a time 
of civil troubles. He has but one party to fear, that of 
the Duke of Orleans. This party has been germinating 
for a long time. Let him despise all parties, and only 
see the mass of the people. Excepting those who have 
betrayed their country, he ought to forget the previous 
conduct of all men, and reward talent, merit, and 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 135 

services wherever he finds them. Chateaubriand, not- 
withstanding his libel, is a good Frenchman. 

" France is the country where the chiefs of parties 
have the least influence. To rest for support on them 
is to build on sand. Great things can only be done in 
France by having the support of the mass of the people. 
Besides, a government should always seek support where 
it is really to be found. There are moral laws as in- 
flexible and imperious as the physical ones. The Bour- 
bons can only rely for support on the nobles and the 
priest, whatever may be the constitution which they are 
made to adopt. The water will descend again to its 
level, in spite of the machine which has raised it for a 
moment. I, on the contrary, relied on the whole mass 
of the people without exception. I set the example of 
a government which favoured the interests of all. I 
did not govern by the help of, or solely for either the 
nobles, the priests, the citizens, or tradesmen. I go- 
verned for the whole community, for the whole family of 
the French nation. 

" My nobility will afford no support to my son. I 
required more than one generation to succeed in making 
them assume my colour, and preserve, by tradition, the 
sacred deposit of my moral conquests. From the year 
1815, all the grandees openly espoused the opposite 
party. I felt no reliance either on my marshals or my 
nobility, not even on my colonels ; but the whole mass 
of the people, and the whole army, up to the grade of 
captain, were on my side. I was not deceived in feeling 
this confidence. They owe much to me. I was their 
true representative. My dictatorship was indispensable. 
The proof of this is, that they always offered me more 
power than I desired. In the present day there is 
nothing possible in France but what is necessary. It 



136 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

will not be the same with my son. His power will be 
disputed. He must anticipate every desire for liberty. 
It is, besides, easier in ordinary times to reign with the 
help of the Chambers than alone. The Assemblies take 
a great part of your responsibility, and nothing is more 
easy than always to have the majority on your side ; but 
care must be taken not to demoralise the country. The 
influence of the government in France is immense ; and 
if it understands the way, it has no need of employing 
corruption in order to find support on all sides. The 
aim of a sovereign is not only to reign, but to diffuse 
instruction, morality, and well-being. Anything false 
is but a bad aid. 

" In my youth, I too entertained some illusions ; but 
I soon recovered from them. The great orators who 
rule the assemblies by the brilliance of their eloquence, 
are, in general, men of the most mediocre political 
talents. They should not be opposed in their own way, 
for they have always more noisy words at command than 
you. Their eloquence should be opposed by a serious 
and logical argument. Their strength lies in vagueness. 1? 
They should be brought back to^the reality of facts. 
Practical arguments destroy them. In the Council there 
were men possessed of much more eloquence than I was. 
I always defeated them by this simple argument — two 
and two make four. 

"France possesses very clever practical men. The 
only thing necessary is to find them, and to give them 
the means of reaching the proper station. One is at the 
plough, who ought to be in the council, and another is 
minister who ought to be at the plough. Let not my 
son be astonished to hear men, the most reasonable to 
all appearance, propose to him the most absurd plans. 
From the agrarian law to the despotism of the Grand 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 137 

Turk, every system finds an apologist in France. Let 
him listen to them all ; let him take everything at its 
just value, and surround himself by all the real capacity 
of the country. The French people are influenced by 
two powerful passions — the love of liberty and the love 
of distinction. These, though seemingly opposed, are 
derived from one and the same feeling, a government 
can only satisfy these two wants by the most exact jus- 
tice. The law and action of the government must be 
equal towards all. Honours and rewards must be con- 
ferred on the men who seem in the eyes of all to be 
most worthy of them. Merit may be pardoned, but not 
intrigue. The order of the Legion of Honour has been 
an immense and powerful incitement to virtue, talent, 
and courage. If ill employed, it would become a great 
evil by alienating the whole army, if the spirit of court 
intrigue and coterie presided at its nominations or in its 
administrations. 

" My son will be obliged to allow the liberty of the 
press. This is a necessity in the present day. In order 
to govern, it is not necessary to pursue a more or less 
perfect theory, but to build with the materials which are 
under one's hand ; to submit to necessities and profit 
by them. The liberty of the press ought to become, in 
the hands of the government, a powerful auxiliary in 
diffusing, through all the most distant corners of the 
empire, sound doctrines and good principles. To leave 
it to itself would be to fall asleep on the brink of a 
danger. On the conclusion of a general peace, I would 
have instituted a Directory of the Press, composed of 
the ablest men of the country ; and I would have dif- 
fused, even to the most distant hamlet, my ideas and my 
intentions. In the present day it is impossible to remain 
as one might have done three hundred years ago — a 



138 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

quiet spectator of the transformations of society. Now 
one must, under the pain of death, either direct or hin- 
der everything. 

" My son ought to be a man of new ideas, and of the 
cause which I have made triumphant everywhere. He 
ought to establish institutions which shall efface all 
traces of the feudal law, secure the dignity of man, and 
dev elope those germs of prosperity which have been bud- 
ding for centuries. He should propagate in all those 
countries uncivilized and barbarous, the benefits of 
Christianity and civilization. Such should be the aim 
of all my son's thoughts. Such is the cause for which I 
die a martyr to the hatred of the oligarchs, of which I 
am the object. Let him consider the holiness of my 
cause. Look at the regicides ! They were formerly in 
the councils of a Bourbon. To-morrow they will return 
to their country, and I and mine expiate in torture the 
blessings which I desired to bestow on nations. My 
enemies are the enemies of humanity. They desire to 
fetter the people, whom they regard as a flock of sheep. 
They endeavour to oppress France, and to make the 
stream re-ascend towards its source. Let them take 
care that it does not burst its bounds. 

" With my son, all opposite interests may live in peace ; 
new ideas be diffused and gather strength, without any 
violent shock, or the sacrifice of any victims, and 
humanity be spared dreadful misfortunes. But if the 
blind hatred of kings still pursues my blood after my 
death, I shall then be avenged, but cruelly avenged. 
Civilization will suffer in every way, if nations burst 
their bounds, and rivers of blood will be shed through- 
out the whole of Europe; the lights of science and 
knowledge will be extinguished amid civil and foreign 
warfare. More than three hundred years of troubles 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 139 

will be required in order to destroy in Europe that 
royal authority which has, but for a day, represented the 
interests of all classes of men, but which struggled for 
several centuries before it could throw off all the re- 
straints of the Middle Ages. If, on the other hand, the 
North advances against civilization, the struggle will be 

O ? OS 

of shorter duration, but the blows more fatal. The well- 
being of nations, all the results which it has taken so 
many years to obtain, will be destroyed, and none can 
foresee the disastrous consequences. The accession of 
my son is for the interest of nations, as well as kings. 
Beyond the circle of ideas and principles for which we 
have fought, and which I have carried triumphantly 
through all difficulties, I see nought but slavery and 
confusion for France and for the whole of Europe. 

" You will publish all that I have dictated or written, 
and you will engage my son to read and reflect upon 
it. You will tell him to protect all those who have 
served me well, and their number is large. My poor 
soldiers, so devoted, so magnanimous, are now, perhaps, 
in want of bread! What buried riches, which will, 
perhaps, never again see the light of day ! Europe is 
progressing toward an inevitable transformation. To 
endeavour to retard this progress would be but to lose 
strength by a useless struggle. To favour it is to 
strengthen the hopes and wishes of all. 

" There are desires of nationality which must be satis- 
fied sooner or later. It is towards this end that con- 
tinual progress should be made. My son's position will 
not be exempt from immense difficulties. Let him do 
by general consent what I was compelled by circum- 
stances to effect by force of arms. When I was victo- 
rious over Russia, in 1812, the problem of a peace of a 
hundred years' duration was solved. I cut the Gordian 



i4o TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

knot of nations. In the present day it must be untied. 
The remembrance of the thrones which I raised up, 
when it was for the general interest of my policy so to 
do, should be effaced. In the year 1815, 1 exacted from 
my brothers that they should forget their royalty, and 
only take the title of French princes. My son should 
follow this example. An opposite course would excite 
just alarm. 

" It is no longer in the North that great questions will 
be resolved, but in the Mediterranean. There, there is 
enough to content all the ambition of the different- 
powers; and the happiness of civilized nations may be 
purchased with fragments of barbarous lands. Let the 
kings listen to reason. Europe will no longer afford 
matter for maintaining international hatreds. Prejudices 
are dissipated and intermingled. Routes of commerce 
are becoming multiplied. It is no longer possible for 
one nation to monopolize it. As a means by which my 
son may see whether his administration be good or 
the contrary, whether his laws are in accordance with 
the manners of the country, let him have an annual and 
particular report presented to him of the number of 
condemnations pronounced by the tribunals. If crimes 
and delinquencies increase in number, it is a proof that 
misery is on the increase, and that society is ill governed. 
Their diminution, on the other hand, is a proof of the 
contrary. 

" Religious ideas have more influence than certain 
narrow-minded philosophers are willing to believe. They 
are capable of rendering great services to humanity. By 
standing well with the Pope an influence is still main- 
tained over the consciences of a hundred millions of men. 
Pius VII. will be always well-disposed towards my son. 
He is a tolerant and enlightened old man. Fatal cir- 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 141 

cumstances embroiled our cabinets ; I regret this deeply. 
Cardinal Fesch did not understand me. He upheld the 
party of the Ultramoiitanes, the enemies of true religion 
in France. If you are permitted to return to France, 
you will still find many who have remained faithful to 
my memory. The best monuments which they could 
raise to me would be to make a collection of all the ideas 
which I expressed in the Council of State for the ad- 
ministration of the empire ; to collect all my instruc- 
tions to my ministers, and to make a list of the works 
which I undertook, which I raised in France and Italy. 
In what I have said in the Council of State, a distinc- 
tion must be made, between the measures good only for 
the moment, and those the application of which is eter- 
nally true. 

" Let my son often read and reflect on history. This 
is the only true philosophy. Let him read and medi- 
tate on the wars of the greatest captains. This is the 
only means of rightly learning the science of war. But 
all that you say to him, or all that he learns will be of 
little use to him if he has not in the depth of his heart 
that sacred fire and love of good which alone can effect 
great things. I will hope, however, that he will be worthy 
of his destiny." 



" I had," said Napoleon to Dr. Arnott, " come to 
seek the hospitality of the British people ; I askedYor 
a generous protection, and to the subversion of every 
right held sacred upon earth, chains were the reply I 
received. I should have experienced a different recep- 
tion from Alexander Your ministers have 

chosen tjiis horrible rock, upon which the lives of 
Europeans are exhausted in less than three years, in 



14a TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

order to end my existence by . ... And how- 
have I been treated since my arrival here ? There is no 
species of indignity or insult that has not been eagerly 
heaped upon me. The simplest family communications, 
which have never been interdicted to any one, have been 
refused to me. No news, no papers from Europe have been 
allowed to reach me ; my wife and son have no longer ex- 
isted for me : I have been kept six years in the tortures of 
close confinement. The most uninhabitable spot on this 
inhospitable island, that where the murderous^effects of a 
tropical climate are most severely felt, has been assigned 
to me for a residence, and I, who used to ride on horse- 
back all over Europe, have been obliged to shut myself 
up within four walls, in an unwholesome atmosphere. I 
have been destroyed piecemeal by a premeditated and 
protracted . . . and the . . . Hudson has 
been the executer of the high deeds and exploits of your 
ministers. . . . You will end like the proud repub- 
lic of Venice ; and I dying upon this dreary rock, away 
from those I hold dear, and deprived of everything, be- 
queath the opprobrium and horror of my death to the 
reigning family of England.'* 



Napoleon often nursed little Napoleon Bertrand, 
when he would say, " If my son were with me ! " then 
he added, " I should not be happier, he would console 
me for a time, but when I thought of his future — " 



Of Pope's Iliad, Napoleon said, " This is the proof 
that of all languages the English most nearly resembles 
the Greek. Pope, of all authors is the one who has best 
translated Homer." 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 143 

In conversation with an English general, Napoleon 
spoke of General Monk's restoration of the throne to 
Charles II. When I took the reins of the French 
government," he said, " my political situation was very 
different to that of Monk; England, at the death of 
Cromwell, was divided into different parties, but it was 
outwardly peaceable. Richard, his son, did not know 
how to profit by the labours of his father, and the majo- 
rity recalled Charles to the throne. When the general 
was gone, Napoleon was heard to say to himself aloud, 
" When the advocate, Gohier, the apostate Sieyes, the 
procurer Rewbel, and Moulins had made themselves 
kings, I might well make myself consul. I had taken 
out my licences at Montenotte, at Lodi Areola, and 
Aboukir. 

When Captain Poppleton took leave of Napoleon at 
St. Helena, the ex- emperor offered him a snuff-box set 
with diamonds, saying to him, " Adieu ! my friend, this 
is the only trifle which remains to me. I present it to 
you in order that you may, after my death, show this 
pledge of my gratitude." 

" I shall rejoin my brave companions in the Elysian 
fields. Yes, Kleber, Dessaix, Bessiere, Duroc, Ney, 
Murat, Massena, Berthier will come to greet me, and 
to talk with me of what we have done together. I shall 
recount to them the latest events of my life. On seeing 
me they will rekindle with enthusiasm and glory, and 
we will discourse of our wars and glory with the Scipios, 
the Hannibals, with Caesar and with Frederick. There 
will be pleasure in that, unless (smiling) they should be 
alarmed below to see so many warriors assembled to- 
gether." 



144 TABLE TALK AND OPINIONS OF 

About ten days before his death Napoleon asked for a 
newspaper. One was procured, and running his eyes 
over it he exclaimed, " Naples, Naples ; poor devil ! 
Murat was the best king they have ever had ; but he did 
not know his subjects. From the duke of Calabria to the 
lowest beggar, they are all Lazzaroni.* The old king is 
. . . Have you been to Naples, sir ? " 

" Yes, sire." 

"Ah! beautiful women, well-made men, and — and 
— they understand the art of being happy." 

A few days afterwards, he said softly, " I should like 
to have seen my wife and son again, but God's will be 
done." 

The evening before his death he spoke more than or- 
dinary, and hummed his favourite air — 

" Richard, 6 mon roi, 
L'univers t'abandonne." 

On the morning before his death he said, " There is 
nothing terrible in death; he has been by my pillow 
for the last three weeks, and now he is about to take me 
away for ever." 



* " From this courteous but kind-hearted man of letters (Pro- 
fessor Ebeling), I heard a tolerable Italian pun and an interesting 
anecdote. When Bonaparte was in Italy, having been irritated 
by some instance of perfidy, he said in a loud and vehement 
tone, in a public company : ' 'Tis a true proverb — Gli Italiani 
ladroni/ i.e. the Italians all plunderers. A lady had the courage 
to reply, ' Non tutti; ma buona parte? [Not all, but a good 
part, or Buonaparte]. This I confess sounded to my ears one of 
the many good things that might have been said." — Coleridge's 
Biographia Liter aria, p. 255. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 145 

The last words that Napoleon was heard to pronounce 
were " My God ! . . And the French nation . . 
My son . . Head army . . France ! France.* 



* One cannot tell what connection these two words, Head army, 
could have in his mind, but they were distinctly heard, about 
seven o'clock in the morning. Some moments after, he said, 
"France! France." These were his last words. He breathed 
his last sigh on Saturday, the 5th of May, 1821, at twenty 
minutes to six in the evening. — " Les trois dernier s Mois de la 
Vie de VEmpereur Napoleon. 




APHORISMS.* 




MEND SHIP is but a name. 

The only victory over love is flight. 
Great ambition is the passion of a great 
character. He who is endowed with it may 
perform either very great or very bad actions ; all de- 
pends upon the principles which direct him. 
Love does more harm than good. 
The heart may be broken, and the soul remain un- 
shaken. 

Great reserve and severity of manners are necessary 
for the command of those who are older than ourselves. 
Flatterers and learned men do not agree together. 
There is glory and true greatness in raising one's self 
by the heart. 

Passionate people always deny their anger, and cowards 
often boast their ignorance of fear. 

There are calumnies against which even innocence 
loses courage. 



* Some of Napoleon's aphorisms it is impossible or unneces- 
sary to find a date for. We have, therefore, thought it better to 
place them at the end, avoiding as much as possible a repetition 
of those phrases which have been already given in his conversa- 
tions and letters. 



A 



APHORISMS OF NAPOLEON I. 147 

He who is unmoved by tears has no heart. 

The sight of a battle-field after the fight, is enough to 
inspire princes with a love of peace and a horror of war. 

It is the cause, and not the death that makes the 
martyr. 

Military bravery has nothing in common with civil 
courage. 

The conscience is the inviolable asylum of the liberty 
of man. 

Words pass away, but actions remain. 

Grief has its bounds, which must not be exceeded. 

All predictions are impostures, the result of fraud, 
blly, or fanaticism. 
■ I failed ; therefore, according to all justice I was 
wrong. 

Experience is the true wisdom of nations. 

Greatness is nothing, unless it be lasting. 

The best way to cure the body is to quiet the mind. 

Fortune has always been the first title to considera- 
tion. 

Girls cannot be better brought up than by their 
mother ; public education is not suitable to them. 

There is no more fatal misfortune for a man than to 
allow himself to be governed by his wife ; in such case 
he is neither himself nor his wife ; he is simply nothing. 

In great crises it is women's lot to soften our misfor- 
tunes. 

Fanaticism must be lulled first, in order that it may 
be uprooted. 

Nothing is done while something still remains to be 
done. 

The woman we love is always the most beautiful of 
her sex. 

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary. 



148 aphorisms of 

Great men are those who can control both good luck 
and fortune. 

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat. 

The greater the man, the less will should he have ; he 
depends on circumstances and events. 

Better never to have been born than to live without 
glory ; 

It is never wise to inflame hatred, nor to render one's 
self odious. 

A true man hates no one. 

It is in times of difficulty that great men and great 
nations display all the energy of their character, and be- 
come an object of admiration to posterity. 

We must laugh at man, to avoid crying for him. 

Where flowers degenerate man cannot live. 

Men are not so ungrateful as they are said to be. If 
they are often complained of, it generally happens that 
the benefactor exacts more than he has given. 

Men have their virtues, their vices, their heroism, 
their perverseness ; they possess and exercise all that is 
good, and all that is bad in this world. 

Men, in general, are but great children. 

Men of letters are useful men who should ever be 
distinguished, as they do honour to their country. 

Disdain hatreds; hear both sides, and delay judg- 
ment until reason has had time to resume her sway. 

Great men are like meteors, which shine and consume 
themselves to enlighten the earth. 

Historians are like the sheep of Panurge, they copy 
that which their predecessors have written, so that their 
opinions and interest are not opposed to it, without 
troubling themselves to inquire into truth or even pro- 
babilities. 

Indecision and anarchy in leaders lead to weakness 
and anarchy in results. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 149 

Independence, like honour, is a rocky island, without 
a beach. 

Uncertainty is painful for all nations and for all men. 

When we have drunk the cup of pleasure to the 
dregs, all we want is rest. 

Judgment in extreme cases should be guided by pre- 
cedent. 

We can only escape the arbitrariness of the judge by 
placing ourselves under the despotism of the law. 

To really understand a man, we must judge him in 
misfortune. 

Liberty and equality are magical words. 

The only encouragement for literature is to give the 
poet a position in the state. 

The praises of an enemy are suspicious : they cannot 
flatter a man of honour until after the cessation of 
hostilities. 

We should wash our dirty linen at home.* 

We are strong, when we have made up our minds to 
die. 

We walk faster when we walk alone. 

Death may expiate faults, but it does not repair them. 

Man is ever ready to forsake the wonders which sur- 
round him for the wonders that others point out ; for 
everything about us is wonderful. 

W^e are all destined to die ! Can a few days of life 
equal the happiness of dying for one's country ? 

Misfortunes have their heroism and their glory. 
-There is nothing terrible in death. - 

Marriage has always been the conclusion of love. 

Death overtakes the coward; but never the brave 
man till his hour is come. 



* II faut laver son Unje sale en famille. A common French 
Proverb. 



150 APHORISMS OF 

As the basis of our decision for marrying a woman, 
we should consider her moral qualifications, such as 
gentleness, economy, and capacity for the management 
of a family. These qualities are the fundamental prin- 
ciples of matrimony. 

The beauties of the Yenus de Medicis are only secon- 
dary qualifications in marriage. 
^ Pride never listens to the voice of reason, nature, or 
religion. 

Peace is the first of necessities, and the first of 
glories. 

A priest should never throw off his cassock : he 
should never for one moment hide his real character. 

The problems of Providence are insoluble. 

When a man is determined to hold a place (under 
government), he has already sold himself to it. 

Paradise is a central spot, where the souls of all man- 
kind arrive by different roads ; each sect has its own 
particular path. 

Wisdom demands forethought. 

Chance is the providence of adventurers. 

It is unjust, odious, and impolitic, to punish a son for 
the faults of his father, and to deprive him of his in- 
heritance. 

There is a similarity of position as regards religion 
and kings — each may be dethroned, 
• •*- True wisdom, in general, consists in energetic deter- 
mination. 

It is as necessary for the heart to feeh as for the body 
to be fed. 

The sympathies of a tottering nation can add no 
strength to an army. 

We must use water, not oil, to quench theological 
volcanoes. 

A glutton will defend his food like a hero. 



NAPOLEON THE FIRST. 151 

Power is founded upon opinion. 

True civil liberty consists in the security of pro- 
perty. 

Men are led by trifles. 

Public instruction should be the first object of go- 
vernment. 

Public esteem is the reward of honest men. 
-We must either strike or be stricken. 

- The government of many is anarchy. 
Cruelty can only be justified by necessity. 

The most trifling circumstances produce the greatest 
results. 

A minister of state should never allow a woman to 
approach his cabinet. 

Frenchmen know not how to form conspiracies. 

The world must be governed without regard to in- 
dividual actions. 

A military government is favourable to royal au- 
thority. 

A prince casts liberty aside when it throws impedi- 
ments in his path. 

I command or I am silent. 

It is not easy to check the people when they are once 
set in motion. 

In politics, there is a wide gulf between promises and 
performances. 

In politics, family considerations are absurd. 

- The police invents more than it discovers. 
_ The best policy is simplicity and truth. 

Revolutions are like the most noxious dung-heaps, 
which bring into life the noblest vegetables. 

A treaty not ratified within the prescribed time, has 
no positive existence. 

It is easier to brave and threaten than to conquer. 



152 



APHORISMS OF NAPOLEON I. 



The will of princes is sometimes foiled ; it depends 
upon events, and awaits their issue. 

The throne is but a bit of gilded wood covered with 
velvet. 

In a monarchy, the throne and the person of the king 
are inseparable. 





NOTES. 




Note 1. 

SfijAPOLEON BONAPARTE was born at Ajaccio, 
in Corsica, on the loth of August, 1769 ; the old 
orthography of his name was Bwonaparte, but he 
suppressed the u during his first campaign in 
Italy. His motives for so doing were merely to 
render the spelling conformable with the pronunciation, and to 
abridge his signature. — Bourrienne's Memoirs of Bonaparte. 

2. " Incapable to estimate his uncommon merit, or rather, 
to penetrate his true motives, his superiors and schoolfellows 
taxed him with being foolish and ridiculous. Every means 
was tried, but in vain, to restore him to himself by making 
him change his conduct. Insensible to affronts which he 
could not resent, he repelled the railleries of the masters by 
silence and disdain. Humiliation and even punishment, which 
were also employed, had no better success." — The Entertain- 
ing History of the Early Years of General Bonaparte. By 
a Royal Emigrant, one of 'Bonaparte } s Schoolfellows. (1810.) 

3. Josephine de Beauharnais was a native of St. Domingo, 
and the daughter of a planter named De la Pagerie. While 
she was an infant, she herself stated, a negro sorceress pro- 
phesied that "she should one day be greater than a queen, 
and yet outlive her dignity." According to some, the last 
clause ran, "die in an hospital," which was in the sequel 
interpreted to mean Malmaison — a palace which (like our own 
St. James's) had once been an hospital. 



154 NOTES. 

4. Before Madame Beauharnais' marriage with Bonaparte 
she wrote to a friend as follows : — " I admire the General's 
courage ; the extent of his knowledge on every subject (for on 
every one he speaks equally well); the penetration of his mind 
which enables him to apprehend another's thought almost 
before it is expressed ; but I own I am not without dread on 
beholding the empire which he appears to exercise over every- 
thing around him. His scrutinizing look has in it something 
singular — something which I cannot explain, but which is felt 
even by our directors. Must it not, then, intimidate a woman ? 
Barras tells me, that if I marry the General, he shall have the 
chief command of the army of Italy. Yesterday, in speaking 
of this promotion, which though not yet bestowed, causes his 
brother officers to murmur, Bonaparte said to me, — ' Do they 
(the Directors) believe that I stand in need of protection to 
make my way ? Some time all of them will be happy to re- 
ceive mine ! I wear a sword, which will be found my best 
patron.' What think you of this certainty of success ? Is it 
not a proof of overweening confidence, proceeding from exces- 
sive self-love? A general of brigade protect the heads of 
government ! After all, it is likely enough. Sometimes this 
ridiculous assurance imposes on me to such a degree that I be- 
lieve possible whatever this extraordinary man may take a 
fancy to attempt ; and with his imagination, who can say what 
he may not attempt?" — Memoires de Josephine. Paris, 1829. 

[Bourrienne pronounces this work genuine, though published 
anonymously. 1 

5. Josephine was remarkable for her extravagance. On 
one occasion she owed no less than 1,200,000 francs, and pre- 
vailed upon the secretary to state her debts at half that sum. 
" The anger of the First Consul," says Bourrienne, " may be 
conceived. He suspected, however, that his wife concealed 
something ; but he said, — ' Take the 600,000 francs, but let 
that sum suffice; let me be pestered with no more of her 
debts. Threaten the creditors with the loss of their accounts 
if they do not renounce their enormous profits.' These ac- 
counts Madame Bonaparte laid before me. The exorbitant 
price of every article arising from the fear of the creditors 
either that they must give very long credit, or in the end be 



NOTES. 155 

compelled to make a considerable abatement is incredible. I 
thought, too, tbat many articles were charged for which had 
never been delivered. In one bill, for instance, thirty-eight 
hats of a very high price were supplied in one month ; the 
feathers alone were 1,800 francs. I asked Josephine if she 
wore two hats a day, she said, 'It must be an error/ Other 
overcharges, both as to the price, and the things furnished, 
evinced the same system of plunder. I followed the Consul's 
advice, and spared neither reproaches nor threats. I am 
ashamed to say that the greater number of the tradesmen 
were satisfied with one-half of their bills ; one of them con- 
sented to receive 35,000 francs instead of 80,000, and had the 
impudence to boast before mv face that he had a good profit 
left." 

6. " The First Consul, being informed that the carriers of 
the mails conveyed also a variety of other things, especially 
delicacies for certain favoured persons, ordered that in future 
the service of the post should be confined to letters and 
despatches. That very evening Cambaceres entered the room 
in which I was sitting with the First Consul, who enjoyed be- 
forehand the embarrassment of his colleague. 'Well, Cam- 
baceres, what is the matter at this hour ?' • I come to request 
an exception to the order you have given to the director of the 
posts. How do you suppose that friends can either be made 
or preserved without the best dishes? You know yourself 
that a good table has a great deal to do with the art of 
governing.' The First Consul laughed heartily, called him a 
gourmand, and patting him on the shoulder said, — * Be com- 
forted, my poor Cambaceres, forget your anger ; the couriers 
shall continue to bring your pates de Strasbourg.' " — Bour- 
riennes Memoirs. 

7. " Bonaparte," says Madame de Stael, " chose with sin- 
gular sagacity for his assistant consuls, two men who were of 
no use but to disguise the unity of his despotism. The one 
was Cambaceres, a lawyer of great learning, who had been 
taught in the Convention to bend methodically before terror; the 
other Lebrun, a man of highly cultivated mind and highly polished 
manners, who had been trained under the Chancellor Maupeon 
— under that minister who, satisfied with the degree of arbi- 



156 NOTES. 

trary power which he found in the monarchy as it then existed, 
had substituted for the parliaments of France one named by 
himself. Cambaceres was the interpreter of Bonaparte to the 
revolutionists ; Lebrun to the royalists. Both translated the 
same text into two different languages. Thus two able 
ministers were charged with the task of adapting the old 
system and the new to the mixed mass of the third. The one 
a great noble, who had been engaged in the revolution, told the 
royalists that it was their interest to recover monarchical insti- 
tutions, at the expense of renouncing the ancient dynasty. 
The other, who, though a creature of the era of disaster, was 
ready to promote the re-establishment of courts, preached to 
the republicans the necessity of abandoning their political 
opinions in order to preserve their places/' 

8. The following is a tolerable example of the system of 
espionage pursued by Savary: — 

A man who had lost his two sons in the Russian campaign 
was suspected of not being very heartily attached to the 
existing government ; such, indeed, was the fact, but he was 
prudent enough to speak his mind only in presence of his most 
intimate friends ; before the rest of the world he was mute, 
thereby baffling the efforts of the numerous hired spies whom 
Savary had placed over him. As he was one day seated in the 
garden of the Luxembourg, accompanied by a tried friend, the 
conversation began with the battle of Leipsic, which had re- 
cently taken place. In the sequel neither spared the despot, 
whose downfai they hoped was near at hand. In the midst 
of this confidential intercourse a lovely little boy, apparently 
in his sixth year, came weeping towards them, crying that he 
had lost his nurse. They endeavoured to comfort him, telling 
him not to sob, for his nurse would not fail to seek him. During 
the quarter of an hour which he remained with them they con- 
tinued to converse on the same subject. Then a woman was 
seen to approach with a child in her arms ; no sooner did the 
boy perceive her than he cried, " There is my nurse," and 
hastened to rejoin her. The very next morning both were 
arrested and conducted to the Conciergerie. The childless 
parent was the first interrogated, and his surprise was not 
little to hear repeated, word for word, a portion of his conver- 



NOTES, 157 

sation with his friend. His natural impression was that that 
friend had betrayed him, but he soon found his mistake. Both 
were immediately imprisoned, nor were they enlarged before 
the fall of Napoleon. Children of both sexes were employed 
in this execrable system of espionage. — Court and Camp of 
Bonaparte. 

9. Not even Napoleon's example could persuade the Parisians 
to wear ill-shaped hats and clumsy boots ; but he in his own 
person adhered to the last to his original connection with 
these poor artisans. 

10. The following list of books for a Camp Library Na- 
poleon made out with his own hand, before the expedition to 
the East : — 

I. Science and the Arts. — Plurality of Worlds, Fontenelle, 

1 vol. Letters to a German Princess, 2 vols. Course of the 
Normal School, 6 vols. Treatise on Artillery, 1 vol. On 
Fortifications, 3 vols. On Fireworks, 1 vol. 

11. Geography and Travels. — Barclay's Geography, 12 vols. 
Cook's Voyages, 3 vols. La Harpe's Collection of French 
Voyages and Travels, 24 vols. 

III. History. — Plutarch, 12 vols. Turenne, 2 vols. Conde, 
4 vols. Villars, 4 vols. Luxembourg, 2 vols. Duguesclin, 

2 vols. Saxe, 3 vols. Memoirs of the French Marshals, 20 
vols. President Hainault, 4 vols. Chronology, 2 vols. Marl- 
borough, 4 vols. Prince Eugene, 6 vols. Philosophical His- 
tory of India, 12 vols. Germany, 2 vols. Charles XII., 

1 vol. Essay on the Manners of Nations, 6 vols. Peter the 
Great, 1 vol. Polybius, 6 vols. Justin, 2 vols. Arrian, 

3 vols. Tacitus, 2 vols. Livy, — vols. Thucydides, 2 vols. 
Vertot, 4 vols. Deuina, 8 vols. Frederic II., 8 vols. 

IV. Poetry. — Ossian, 1 vol. Tasso, 6 vols. Ariosto, 6 vols. 
Homer, 6 vols. Virgil, 4 vols. Henriade, 1 vol. Telemaque, 

2 vols. The Gardens (Delille) 1 vol. Masterpieces of the 
French Drama, 20 vols. Select Fugitive Poetry, 10 vols. La 
Fontaine, — vols. 

. V. Fiction. — Voltaire, 4 vols. Heloise, 4 vols. Werther, 
1 vol. Marmontel, 4 vols. English Novels, 40 vols. Le 
Sage, 10 vols. Prevost, 10 vols. 
VI. Political (?)— Old Testament and New. The Koran. 



158 NOTES. 

The Vedane. Mythology. Montesquieu. Spirit of Laws. 
In a note to this, Dr. Memes, the translator of the Edinburgh 
edition (1831) of Bourrienne's Memoirs, says very justly, 
" There appears a sad affectation in the title and contents of 
the last division of this list, and the whole shows shallow ac- 
quirement, and in some instances bad taste. The scientific 
portion, especially the mathematical, will astonish those readers 
who know the subject." 

11. In the expedition to Egypt, the common men beheld with 
no friendly eye the troop ofsavans mounted on asses (the common 
conveyance of the country), with all their instruments, books, 
and baggage. They began to suspect that the expedition had 
been undertaken for some merely scientific purposes, and when 
on any alarm they were ordered to open the square and give 
the learned party safe footing within, they used to receive them 
with military jeerings, " room for the asses : stand back, here 
come the savans and the demi-savans." 

12. Respect for the ceremonies of the Koran. Napoleon 
held a conversation as follows, in one of the pyramids with 
several Imams and Muftis who accompanied him. It may 
amuse by its singurality : 

Bonaparte. God is great, and his works are marvellous. 
Here is a great work from the hands of man. What was the 
object of the man who built this pyramid ? 

Suleiman. He was a great and powerful king of ^Egypt, 
whose name we believe to be Cheops. He wished that no sacri- 
lege should disturb the repose of his ashes. 

Bonaparte. The great Cyrus was buried in the open air, so 
that his body should return to its elements. Do you not think 
he did better ? do you think so ? 

Suleiman (bowing), Glory to God, to whom all glory is due ! 

Bonaparte. Honour to Allah ! What caliph opened this 
pyramid and disturbed the repose of the dead ? 

Muhamed. It is believed by some the Commander of the 
Faithful, who reigned many ages ago at Bagdad ; others say 
the renowned Haroun al Raschid (God rest his soul), who 
thought to find treasure there; but when the pyramid was 
entered by his orders, tradition says that only mummies were 
found, and upon the wall this inscription in letters of gold : 



NOTES. 159 

" The impious will commit sin without result, but not without 
remorse." 

Bonaparte. The bread stolen by the wicked, fills his mouth 
with gravel. 

Muhamed (bowing), It is the discourse of wisdom. 

Bonaparte. Glory to Allah ! there is no God but God ; 
Mahomet is his prophet, and I am one of his friends. 

Suleiman. Peace to the one sent of God. Health also to 
thee, invincible general, favourite of Mahommed. 

Bonaparte. Mufti, 1 thank thee. The divine Koran is the 
delight of my soul and the attention of my eyes. I love the 
prophet, and I hope before loug to see and honour his tomb in 
the sacred city. But my mission henceforth is to exterminate 
the Mamelukes. 

Ibrahim. May the angels of victory sweep the dust from 
thy path, and cover it with their wings. The Mameluke has 
deserved death. 

Bonaparte. He has been stricken and given up to the black 
angels Moukir and Quakir. God, on wbom all depends, has 
ordered that his dominion shall be destroyed. 

Suleiman. He stretched out the hand of plunder over the 
lands, the crops and the horses of Egypt. 

Bonaparte. And upon the most beautiful slaves, very holy 
Mufti. Allah has withered his hand. God is just and merciful 
to the people. 

Ibrahim. the most valiant amongst the children of Issa 
(Jesus Christ), Alia has made thee follow the exterminating 
angel to deliver his land of Egypt. 

Bonaparte. This land was given up to twenty-four oppres- 
sors, rebels to the great Sultan our ally (whom God surround 
with glory), and to 10,000 slaves from Canada and Georgia ; 
Adriel, angel of death, has breathed upon them ; we have come, 
and they have disappeared. 

Muhamed. Noble successor of Scander (Alexander), honour 
to thy invincible arms, and to the unexpected thunder that pro- 
ceeds from the midst of thy warlike horsemen. 

Bonaparte. Do you know that that thunder is a work of the 
children of men ? Allah put it into my hands by the genius of 
war. 



160 NOTES. 

Ibrahim. We recognize in thy works Allah who sends thee. 
Wouldst thou he a conqueror if Allah did not permit it? The 
Delta and all the neighbouring countries resound with thy 
miracles. 

Bonaparte. A celestial chariot (a balloon) shall rise by my 
orders to the dwelling-place of the clouds, and the thunder shall 
descend to the earth by a thread of metal (a lightning con- 
ductor), as soon as I shall have commanded it. 

Suleiman. And the great serpent fell from the column of 
Pompey on the day of thy triumphant entry to Alexandria, and 
has remained dry upon the pedestal, is not that a wonder pro- 
duced by thy hand ? 

Bonaparte. Lights of the age, you are destined to see still 
greater wonders, for the days of regeneration are come. 

Ibrahim. The Divine Unity looks at thee with an eye of pre- 
dilection, adorer of Issa, and gives thee the support of the chil- 
dren of the prophet. 

Bonaparte. Has not Mahomet said, Every man who adores 
God and does good works, whatever may be his religion, shall 
be saved ? 

Suleiman, Muhamed, Ibrahim (bowing), He has said it. 

Bonaparte. And if by an order from on high, I have tem- 
pered the pride of the Vicar of Issa, by lessening his earthly 
possessions to amass celestial treasures for him, say, am I not 
giving glory to God whose mercy is infinite ? 

Muhamed (with embarrassment). The Mufti of Rome was 
rich and powerful, but we are only poor Muftis. 

Bonaparte. I know it. Do not fear. You have been 
weighed in the balance of Balthazard, and you have been 
found wanting. . . This pyramid did not contain any treasure 
that was known to you then ? 

Suleiman. JSo sire. We swear it by the holy city of Mecca. 

Bonaparte. Cursed, thrice cursed be those who seek for 
perishable riches, and heap up gold and silver like mud. 

Suleiman. Thou hast spared the Vicar of Issa, and treated 
him with clemency and goodness. 

Bonaparte. He is an old man whom I honour (may God 
give him his desires when they shall be regulated by reason and 
truth), but he has condemned all Mussulmans to eternal fire; 
and Allah condemns intolerance in all. 



NOTES. 161 

Ibrahim. Glory to Allah and to his prophet, who has sent 
thee into the midst of us to rekindle the faith of the weak, and 
open to the faithful the doors of the seventh heaven. 

Bonaparte. You have said it, very zealous Muftis. Be 
faithful to Allah, the sovereign master of the seven marvellous 
heavens; to Mahomet, who traversed all the heavens in a night. 
Be friends of the Franks, and Allah, Mahomet and the Franks 
will reward you. 

Ibrahim. May the prophet himself give thee to sit at his 
left hand on the resurrection day, after the third sound of the 
trumpet. 

Bonaparte. He who has ears to hear, let him hear; the 
hour of resurrection has arrived for all people labouring under 
oppression. Muftis, Imams, Mullahs, Dervishes, Kalenders, 
instruct the people of Egypt; encourage them to join us in 
weakening the Beys and the Mamelukes ; look favourably upon 
the commerce of France in your countries. The treasures, the 
industry, and the friendship of the Franks shall be yours till 
you mount to the seventh heaven, and seated by the side of the 
black-eyed houris, always virgins and always young, you repose 
under the shade of the Lama, whose branches will offer to the 
true Mussulmans all that they can desire. 

Suleiman. Thou hast spoken like the most learned of the 
Mullahs. We place faith in thy words; we will serve thy 
cause, and God hears us. 

Bonaparte. God is great, and His works are marvellous. 
Peace be upon you, most holy Muftis. 

Madame de Stael says of this conversation : 

It ought to enchant the Parisians, because it unites the two 
qualities most captivating to them ; a certain species of great- 
ness, and of mockery at the same time. The French are very 
easily moved ; charlatanism pleases them, and they willingly 
help to deceive themselves provided they are permitted all the 
while they are acting like dupes, to prove by bon mots that they 
are nevertheless not so. 

13. "It was said of Murat by Napoleon that when he ad- 
vanced to the charge he resembled a paladin of old more than 
a modern soldier. In his costume he imitated the ancient 
knights ; his noble port showed majestically under the chivalric 



1 62 NOTES. 

garb ; add to this his more than mortal daring, and we shall 
not wonder that the very Cossacks raised a shout of admiration 
when he approached them. A striking example of this oc- 
curred September 4th. The king with a few squadrons had 
left Griatz, followed at some distance by the grand army ; in 
his march he was much annoyed by clouds of Cossacks who 
hovered about the heads of his columns, and from time to time 
compelled them to deploy. This troublesome series of inter- 
ruptions at length incensed him to such a degree that he 
galloped up to them unattended, and in an authoritative voice 
cried out * Clear the way, vermin V It is a fact equally ex- 
traordinary and incontestable that these wild sons of the 
desert were so awed by his manner, as involuntarily to obey 
his command, nor did they again block up the way during the 
whole of that day's march." — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 

14. At Eylau the French army was in a critical situation. 
Augereau had been routed, the march of Davoust had been 
impeded, Ney and Bernadotte were at a distance ; and the 
Emperor was so much discouraged at the heavy loss he had 
sustained, that he wished to fall back to effect a junction with 
his other corps. 

" * Beware of doing so, sire ! ' exclaimed Soult with vivacity. 
' Let us remain the last on the field, and we shall have the 
honour of the day. From what I have seen, I suspect the 
enemy will retreat during the night.' The Emperor complied 
with his marshal's suggestion, the wisdom of which was fully 
justified by the event, and he was soon rewarded with the 
ducal fief of Dalmatia." — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 

15. As a proof of Napoleon's constancy, it may be men- 
tioned that Napoleon, when he had become great and illustrious, 
employed the same tradespeople, however inferior in their 
several crafts, who had served him in the days of his obscurity. 
A silversmith who had given him credit when he set out to 
Italy for a dressing-case worth £50, was rewarded with all the 
business which the recommendation of his now illustrious 
debtor could bring to him ; and being clever in his trade be- 
came ultimately, under the patronage of the imperial house- 
hold, one of the wealthiest citizens of Paris. A little hatter 
and a cobbler who had served Bonaparte when a subaltern 



NOTES. 163 

might have risen in the same manner had their skill equalled 
the silversmith's. 

16. Cardinal Fesch appealed to the Emperor to try and 
divert him from the war with Russia on other grounds than 
those which Fouche suggested. The cardinal had been greatly 
afflicted by Napoleon's treatment of the pope, and he con- 
templated this new war with dread, as likely to bring down the 
vengeance of heaven on the head of one who had dared to 
trample on its vicegerent. He besought Napoleon not to pro- 
voke at once the wrath of man and the fury of the elements ; 
and expressed his belief that he must one day sink under the 
weight of that universal hatred with which his actions were 
surrounding his throne. Bonaparte led the churchman to the 
window, opened it, and pointing upwards said, " Do you see 
yonder star ? " " No sire," replied the cardinal. " But I see 
it," answered Napoleon, and abruptly dismissed him. 

17. On the 24th of June the grand imperial army, con- 
solidated into three masses, began the passage of the Niemen ; 
the King of Westphalia at Grodno ; the Viceroy Eugene at 
Pilony, and Napoleon himself near Kowno. The Emperor 
rode on in front of his army to reconnoitre the banks ; his 
horse stumbled and he fell to the ground. " A bad omen, a 
Roman would return," some one exclaimed; who, it is not cer- 
tain. The first party crossing was challenged by a single 
Cossack. "For what purpose," said he, "do you enter the 
Russian country?" "To beat you and take Wilna," an- 
swered the advanced guard. The sentinel struck spurs into 
his horse and disappeared in the forest. There came on at the 
same moment a tremendous thunder-storm. Thus began the 
fatal invasion. 

18. During the invasion of Russia, there had been slain in 
battle on Napoleon's side 125,000 men. Fatigue, hunger, 
and cold had caused the death of 132,000 ; and the Russians 
had taken 193,000 prisoners, including forty-eight generals, 
and 3,000 regimental officers. The total loss, therefore, was 
450,000 men. The eagles and standards left in the enemies' 
hands were seventy-five in number, and the pieces of cannon 
nearly one thousand. Exclusive of the Austrian and Prussian 
auxiliaries there remained of all the enormous host which Na- 



1 64 NOTES. 

poleon set in motion in August, about 40,000 men; and of 
these not 10,000 were of the French nation. 

19. Hoffman describes Napoleon at the battle of Dresden, 
as coming on " with the eye of a tyrant and the voice of a lion 
urging his breathless and eager soldiers." 

20. "Having myself long studied the 'man of destiny,' I 
have remarked that that which he called his fortune was in 
fact his genius; that his good luck resulted from his keen 
insight into things ; from the calculations he made rapid as 
lightning ; from the simultaneousness of his actions, and of his 
conceptions; and from the conviction which he himself 
cherished, that boldness is often wisdom." — Bourrienne's Me- 
moirs of Bonaparte. 

21. Napoleon, if we may believe Madame de Stael, had the 
weakness to affect in many trivial matters, a close imitation of 
what his new attendants reported to have been the personal 
demeanour of the Bourbon princes. His behaviour as the 
holder of a court was never graceful. He could not or would 
not control the natural vehemence of his temper, and ever and 
anon confounded the old race of courtiers by ebullitions which 
were better suited to the camp than the saloons of the Tuileries ; 
but whenever he thought fit to converse with a man capable of 
understanding him, the Consul failed not to create a very 
lively feeling in his own favour ; and meantime Josephine was 
admirably adapted to supply his deficiencies in the manage- 
ment of circles and festivals. 

22. With regard to Napoleon's reclamations against the 
decision of the English government, it may probably suffice 
now to observe : 1st, That the government had never at any 
period acknowledged him as Emperor of France, and that it 
refused to be a party to the treaty under which he retired to 
Elba, simply because it was resolved not to acknowledge him 
as Emperor of Elba. These things Napoleon well knew, and 
as to his recent re-exercise of imperial functions in France, he 
well knew that the English government had continued to ac- 
knowledge Louis XVIII. as king all through the hundred days. 
Upon no principle, therefore, could he have expected before- 
hand to be treated as emperor by the ministers of the Prince 
iRegent, nor even if he had been born a legitimate prince, 



NOTES. 165 

would it have been in the usual course of things for him, under 
existing circumstances, to persist in the open retention of his 
imperial style. By assuming some incognito as sovereigns 
when travelling out of their own dominions are accustomed to 
do, Napoleon might have cut the root away from one long 
series of his subsequent disputes with the English government 
and authorities. But in doing as he did, he acted on calcula- 
tion. He never laid aside the hopes of escape and empire. It 
was his business to have complaints. If everything went on 
quietly and smoothly about him, what was to ensure the 
keeping up of a lively interest in his fortunes among the 
faction to which he still looked as inclined to befriend him, 
and above all among the soldiery, of whose personal devotion, 
even after the catastrophe of Waterloo, he had no reason to 
doubt? Bonaparte in his days of success always attached 
more importance to etiquette than a prince born to the purple 
and not quite a fool, would have been likely to do; but in 
the obstinacy with which after his total downfall, he clung to 
the airy sound of majesty, and such pigmy toys of observance 
as could be obtained under his circumstances, we cannot per- 
suade ourselves to behold more than the sickly profession of 
a parvenu. The English government acknowledged him by 
the highest military rank he had held at the time when the 
treaty of Amiens was concluded with him as first consul ; and 
the sound of General Bonaparte now so hateful in his ears 
who had under that style wielded the destinies of the world, 
might have been lost, if Napoleon himself had chosen, in some 
factitious style. 

23. At Lodi Bonaparte himself appeared in the midst of 
the fire, pointing with his own hand two guns in such a manner 
as to cut off the Austnans from the only path by which they 
could have advanced to undermine the bridge ; and it was on 
this occasion that the soldiery, delighted with his dauntless 
exposure of his person, conferred on him his honorary nickname 
of the little corporal. In the meantime he had sent General 
Beaumont and the cavalry to attempt the passage of the river 
by a distant ford (which they had much difficulty in effecting) 
and awaited with anxiety the moment when they should ap- 
pear on the enemy's flank. When that took place Beaulieu's 



1 66 NOTES. 

line, of course, showed some confusion, and Napoleon instantly 
gave the word. A column of grenadiers whom he had kept 
ready drawn up close to the bridge, but under shelter of the 
houses, were in a moment wheeled to the left, and their 
leading files placed on the bridge. They rushed on shouting 
" Vive la Republique" but the storm of grape-shot for a 
moment checked them. Eonaparte, Lannes, Berthier and 
Lallemagne, hurried to the front, and rallied and cheered the 
men. The column dashed across the bridge in despite of the 
tempest of fire that thinned it. The brave Lannes was the 
first who reached the other side, Napoleon the second. The 
Austrian artillerymen were bayonetted at their guns ere the 
other troops whom Beaulieu had removed too far back in his 
anxiety to avoid the French battery, could come to their as- 
sistance. Beaulieu pressing gallantly with his horse upon the 
flank, and Napoleon's infantry forming rapidly as they passed 
the bridge, and charging on the instant, the Austrian line be- 
came involved in inextricable confusion, broke up and fled. 
The slaughter on their side was great ; on the French there 
fell 200 men. With such rapidity, and consequently with so 
little loss, did Bonaparte execute this dazzling adventure " the 
terrible passage," as he himself called it " of the bridge of 
Lodi." 

24. The battle of Koveredo is one of Napoleon's most 
illustrious days. The enemy had a strongly entrenched camp 
in front of the town ; and behind it in case of misfortune, 
Galliano, with its castle seated on a precipice over the Adige, 
where that river flows between enormous rocks and mountains, 
appeared to offer an impregnable retreat. Nothing could 
withstand the ardour of the French. The Austrians, though 
they defended the intrenched camp with their usual obsti- 
nacy, were forced to give way by the impetuosity of Dubois 
and his hussars. Dubois fell, mortally wounded in the moment 
of his glory ; he waved his sabre cheering his men onwards 
with his last breath. "I die," said he, "for the Eepublic, 
only let me hear, ere life leaves me, that the victory is ours." 
The French horse, thus animated, pursued the Germans, who 
were driven, unable to rally, through and beyond the town. 
Even the gigantic defences of Calliano proved of no avail. 



NOTES. 167 

Height after height was carried at the point of the bayonet; 
7,000 prisoners and fifteen cannon remained with the con- 
querors. The Austrians fled to Levisa, which guards one of 
the chief defiles of the Tyrolese Alps, and were there beaten 
again. Vaubois occupied this important position with the 
gallant division who had forced it. Massena fixed himself in 
Wurmser's late head-quarters at Trent; and Napoleon having 
thus totally cut off the field-marshal's communication with 
Germany, proceeded to issue proclamations calling on the in- 
habitants of the Tyrol to receive the French as friends, and 
seize the opportunity of freeing themselves for ever from the 
dominion of Austria. He put forth an edict declaring that 
the sovereignty of the district was henceforth in the French 
Republic, and inviting the people themselves to arrange, ac- 
cording to their pleasure, its interior government. 

25. Longwood is situated in the middle of a plain on the 
top of a mountain nearly eighteen hundred feet above the level 
of the sea and including Deadwood, occupies about fourteen or 
fifteen hundred acres of ground, of which a great part is planted 
with an indigenous tree called gumwood. Its appearance is 
sombre and monotonous. However, Napoleon preferred to fix 
his residence there, rather than in the town, where he would 
be incessantly exposed to the curious importunity of the in- 
habitants. Unfortunately the house only consisted of five 
rooms on the ground floor, which had been built one after the 
other acording to the wants of the family and without any re- 
gard to symmetry or convenience. It was absolutely impossible 
for Napoleon and his suite to find lodging there, enlargements 
were indispensable, and Napoleon remained at The Briers 
while they were made. 

26. " The Code Napoleon, that elaborate system of jurispru- 
dence in the formation of which the Emperor laboured per- 
sonally along with the most eminent lawyers and enlightened 
men of the time, was a boon of inestimable value to France. 
It was the first uniform system of laws which the French 
monarchy had ever possessed ; and being drawn up with con- 
summate skill and wisdom, it at this day forms the code not 
only of France but of a great portion of Europe besides. 
Justice as between man and man was administered on sound 



1 68 NOTES. 

and fixed principles, and by unimpeached tribunals. The ar- 
bitrary commission courts of Napoleon interfered with nothing 
but offences real or alleged against the authority of the 
Emperor. 

" The clergy were appointed universally under the direction 
of government ; they were also its direct stipendiaries ; hence 
nothing could be more complete than their subjection to its 
pleasure. Education became a part of the regular business of 
the state ; all the schools and colleges being placed under the 
immediate care of one of Napoleon's ministers, all prizes and 
bursaries bestowed by the government, and the whole system 
so arranged that it was hardly possible for any youth who ex- 
hibited remarkable talents to avoid the temptations to a mili- 
tary career which on every side surrounded him. The chief 
distinctions and emoluments were everywhere reserved for 
those who excelled in accomplishments likely to be service- 
able in war ; and the Lyceums, or schools, set expressly apart 
for military students, were invested with numberless at- 
tractions, scarcely to be resisted by a young imagination. The 
army, as it was the sole basis of Napoleon's power, was also at 
all times the primary object of his thoughts. Every institution 
of the state was subservient and ministered to it, and none 
more efficaciously than the imperial system of education. 

"The ranks of the army, however, were filled during the 
whole reign of Napoleon by compulsion. The conscription- 
law of 1798 acquired under him the character of a settled and 
regular part of the national system ; and its oppressive influence 
was such as never before exhausted, through a long term of 
years the best energies of a great and civilized people. Every 
male in France under the age of twenty-five was liable to be 
called on to serve in the ranks ; and the regulations as to the 
procuring of substitutes were so narrow that young men of the 
best families were forced to comply in their own persons with 
the stern requisition. The first conscription-list for the year 
included all under the age of twenty ; and the results of the 
ballot within this class amounted to nearly 80,000 names. 
These were first called on, but if the service of the Emperor 
demanded further supply, the lists of those aged twenty-two, 
twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-five, were successively 



XOTES. 169 

resorted to. There was no exemption for any one who seemed 
able to bear arms. The only child of his parents, the young 
husband and lather were forced, like any others, to abandon 
fireside, profession, all the ties and hopes of life on a moment's 
notice ; and there is nothing in the history of modern Europe 
so remarkable as that the French people should have submitted 
during sixteen years to the constant operation of a despotic 
law, which thus sapped all the foundations of social happiness, 
and condemned the rising hopes of the nation to bleed and 
die by millions in distant wars, undertaken solely for the grati- 
fication of one man's insatiable ambition/' — History of Na- 
poleon Buonaparte. 

27. Talleyrand, and others only second to him in influence, 
were in communication with the Bourbons before the allies 
crossed the Khine. 

28. Napoleon had such an unconquerable aversion to Sir H. 
Lowe, whom he only saw three times, that he said only a short 
time before he died : — " I am going to die and escape from my 
gaoler, and I hope if God damns me, he will not give me an- 
other Hudson Lowe for my devil." 

"I have seen Xapoleon at his toilet. When he dresses 
himself, he is assisted by Marchand, St. Denis, and Novarre. 
One of the latter holds a glass before him, and the other the 
necessary shaving implements, whilst Marchand is ready to 
hand him his clothes, his eau-de-Cologne, &c. When he has 
shaved one side of his face, he says to Novarre, ' Is it done ?' 
After the reply, he turns to the other side. When he has 
finished they hold the glass in front of him, and he examines 
to see if he is perfectly clean-shaven. If he sees or feels that 
any still remains, he sometimes takes one of them by the ear, 
or gives him a slight pat on the cheek, saying in a cheerful 
voice, ' Ah, miscreant ! why did you say it was done V This 
is probably what has given rise to the statement that he beat 
and maltreated his servants. He then washes his face with 
eau-de-Cologne and water, sprinkles some eau-de-Cologne over 
himself, carefully cleans his teeth, often has his body rubbed 
with a flesh-brush, changes his linen and flannel shirt. He 
then puts on a pair of brown nankeen breeches, a white waist- 
coat, silk stockings, shoes with gold buckles, a green coat with 



170 NOTES. 

a single row of white buttons, a black cravat, and a small black 
three-cornered hat with a tricoloured cockade. When he is 
not in undress he always wears the grand cross of the legion of 
honour. When he has put on his coat, Marchand hands him 
a little bonbonniere, his snuff-box, his handkerchief scented 
with eau-de-Cologne, and he leaves the room." — Napoleon dans 
VExil. 

29. On board the Bellerophon Bonaparte admitted that the 
Duke of Wellington, equal to himself in all other military 
qualities, was superior in prudence. 

30. The position of the Duke of Wellington was before the 
village of Mont St. Jean, about a mile and a half in advance 
of the small town of Waterloo, on a rising ground, having a 
gentle and regular declivity before it ; beyond this a plain of 
about a mile in breadth ; and then the opposite heights of La 
Belle Alliance, on which the enemy would of course form their 
line. The Duke had now with him about 75,000 men in all; 
of whom about 30,000 were English. He formed his first line 
of the troops on which he could most surely rely — the greater 
part of the British foot — the men of Brunswick and Nassau, 
and three corps of Hanoverians and Belgians. Behind this the 
ground sinks and rises again. The second line, formed in rear 
of the first, was composed of the troops whose spirit and dis- 
cipline were more doubtful, or who had suffered most in 
the action of Quatre Bras ; and behind them all lay the 
horse. Napoleon had in the field 75,000 men, all French 
veterans, each of whom was in his own estimation worth one 
Englishman, and two Prussians, Dutch, or Belgians. Wel- 
lington's men, however, had had some hours of repose, whereas 
the army of Napoleon had been on the march all through the 
hours of tempestuous darkness, and the greater part of them 
reached not the heights of Belle Alliance until the morning of 
the 18th was considerably advanced. Napoleon had feared 
nothing so much as that Wellington would continue his retreat 
on Brussels and Antwerp, thus deferring the great battle until 
the Russians should approach the valley of the Rhine ; and 
when on reaching the eminence of La Belle Alliance, he beheld 
the army drawn up on the opposite side, his joy was great. 
" At last, then," he exclaimed, " at last, then, I have these 
English in my grasp." 



NOTES. 171 

31. Sir John Moore thought very differently of the English 
soldiers, and he must be allowed to have known them more 
familiarly than even the great genius who so arbitrarily con- 
demns them . Thus of his celebrated retreat Napier ( History of 
the War of the Peninsula) well says, — " Moore felt that, in doing 
so, he compromised the safety of his own army, that he must 
glide along the edge of a precipice ; that he must cross a gulf 
on a rotten plank ; but he also knew the martial qualities of 
his soldiers; he had confidence in his own genius, and the 
occasion being worthy of a great deed, he dared essay it, even 
against Napoleon." Further, after incessant fighting against 
a force six times as large, after typhus and other diseases given 
from the Spaniards who crossed the English line of retreat in 
a disorganized mass our men were not so demoralized but 
they could fight. " It is well said," says Napier, " that a 
British army may be gleaned in a retreat, but cannot be 
reaped ; whatever may be their misery, the soldiers will always 
be found clean at review, ready at a fight ; and scarcely was 
this order issued, when the line of battle, so attenuated before, 
was filled with vigorous men, full of confidence and valour." — 
How these behaved we know. 

32. Josephine's letter to Napoleon on the birth of the King 
of Eome : 

" Navarre. 

" Sire, — Amidst the numerous congratulations which you 
receive from all parts of Europe, from every town in France, 
and every regiment of the army, can the feeble voice of a 
woman reach you ? And will you condescend to listen to her 
who so often consoled you in your sorrows, and assuaged the 
pangs of your heart, when she speaks only of the happiness 
which has just crowned your wishes ? Being no longer your 
wife, dare I offer my congratulations on your becoming a 
father ? Yes, doubtless, sire ! for my soul renders the same 
justice to yours as yours to mine. I conceive what you now 
experience as readily as you divine my emotions on this occa- 
sion ; though separated, we are united by the sympathy which 
bids defiance to events. 

" I should have been glad to learn the birth of the King of 
Kome from yourself, and not by the Canon of Evreux, or the 



172 NOTES. 

Prefect's courier ; but I am well aware that your first atten- 
tions are due to the members of the Corps Diplomatique, to 
your family, and above all, to the happy Princess who has just 
realized your dearest hopes. She cannot be more tenderly 
devoted to you than I am ; but she has had it in her power to 
do more for your happiness by assuring the welfare of France ; 
she has therefore a right to your first sentiments, to all your 
cares ; and I, who was your companion in misfortune only, 
can claim but a far inferior place to that which Maria Louisa 
occupies in your affection. You will have watched round her 
bed, and embraced your son, before you take up your pen to 
converse with your best friend. I will wait ! 

" It is however impossible for me to defer telling you that, 
more than any one on earth, I share in your joy. You will not 
doubt my sincerity when I say that, far from being afflicted with 
a sacrifice so necessary to the repose of all, I rejoice that it has 
been made, now that I suffer alone. Suffer, do I say ? ~No ! 
since you are contented ; and my only regret is, that I have 
not yet done sufficient to prove how dear you were to me ! " — 
Memoires de Josephine. 

33. Captain Basil Hall thus describes Napoleon at Long- 
wood (1817) : " Bonaparte struck me as differing considerably 
from all the pictures and busts I had seen of him. His face 
and figure looked much broader and more square — larger, 
indeed, in every way than any representation I had met with. 
His corpulency, at this time reported to be excessive, was by 
no means remarkable. His flesh looked, on the contrary, firm 
and muscular. There was not the least trace of colour in his 
cheeks ; in fact, his skin was more like marble than ordinary 
flesh. Not the smallest wrinkle was discernible on his brow, 
nor an approach to a furrow on any part of his countenance. 
His health and spirits, judging from appearances, were excel- 
lent ; though at this period it was generally believed in Eng- 
land that he was fast sinking under a complication of diseases, 
and that his spirits were entirely gone. His manner of speak- 
ing was rather slow than otherwise, and perfectly distinct; 
and he waited with great patience and kindness for my an- 
swers to his questions. The brilliant and sometimes dazzling 
expression of eye could not be overlooked. It was not, 



NOTES. 173 

however, a permanent lustre, for it was only remarkable when 
he was excited by some point of particular interest. It is im- 
possible to imagine an expression of more entire mildness, I 
may almost call it of benignity and kindliness, than that which 
played over his features during the whole interview. If, there- 
fore, he was at this time out of health and in low spirits, his 
power of self-command must have been even more extraordinary' 
than is generally supposed ; for his whole deportment, his con- 
versation, and the expression of his face, indicated a frame in 
perfect health, and a mind at ease." 
Byron says of him at this period : — 

" Well thy soul hath brook'd the morning tide, 
With that innate untaught philosophy, 
Which be it wisdom, coldness, or deep pride, 
Is gall and wormwood to an enemy. 
When the whole host of hatred stood hard by, 
To watch and mock thee shrinking, thou hast smiled 
With a sedate and all-enduring eye ; 
When fortune fled her spoiled and favourite child, 
He stood unbow'd beneath the ills upon him piled. 
***** 

Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou. 
She trembles at thee still — and thy wild name 
Was ne'er more bruited in men's minds thaD now 
That thou art nothing, save the jest of Fame 
Who woo'd thee once thy vassal, and became 
The flatterer of thy fierceness, till thou wert 
A god unto thyself, nor less the same 
To the astounded kingdoms all inert 
Who deem'd thee for a time whate'er 
Thou didst assert." 

34. Of Napoleon, Duroc said to Caulaincourt, "The Em- 
peror, my dear Caulaincourt, appears to me to be endowed with 
a variety of mental faculties, any one of which would suffice to 
distinguish a man from the multitude. For example, he is 
the greatest captain of the age — a sovereign whose ministers 
are merely his clerks — a statesman who directs the whole 
business of the country, and superintends every branch of the 
service; and yet this Colossus of gigantic proportions can 
descend with wonderful facility to the most trivial details of 
private life. He can regulate the expenditure of his household 
as he regulates the finances of the empire." — Recollections of 
Caulaincourt. 



174 NOTES. 

35. "In conversation on general topics, Napoleon's inter- 
locutor would find himself perfectly at his ease, and Napoleon 
maintained his share in the discussion with a grace and 
bonhommie which never failed to exercise a captivating in- 
fluence. But in a conversation on any important subject, the 
Emperor was cautious and reserved ; he was always master of 
himself, and he imposed a certain degree of restraint on the 
person with whom he was discoursing. He seemed, as it were, 
to take advantage of his exalted position, and willingly or re- 
luctantly, his interlocutor was almost always brought over to 
his way of thinking/' — Recollections of Caulaincourt. 

36. "In his social relations, Bonaparte's temper was bad; 
but his fits of ill-humour passed away like a cloud, and spent 
themselves in words. His violent language and bitter impre- 
cations were frequently premeditated. When he was going to 
reprimand any one, he liked to have a witness present. 

" He possessed every requisite for being what is called in 
society an agreeable man, except the will to be so. His man- 
ner was imposing rather than pleasing, and those who did not 
know him well experienced in his presence an involuntary 
feeling of awe. In the drawing-room where Josephine did the 
honours, with so much grace and affability, all was gaiety and 
ease, and no one felt the presence of a superior ; but on Bona- 
parte's entrance all was changed, and every eye was directed 
towards him, to read his humour in his countenance, whether 
he intended to be silent or talkative, dull or cheerful. 

"When in good humour his usual tokens of kindness con- 
sisted in a little rap on the head, or a slight pinch of the ear. 
In his most friendly conversations with those whom he ad- 
mitted into his intimacy he would say, 'You are a fool,' 
4 a simpleton,' 'a ninny,' *a blockhead.' These, and a few 
other words of like import, enabled him to vary his catalogue 
of compliments ; but he never employed them angrily, and the 
tone in which they were uttered sufficiently indicated that they 
were meant in kindness. 

" Bonaparte had many singular habits and tastes. Whenever 
he experienced any vexation, or when any unpleasant thought 
occupied his mind, he would hum something which was far 
from resembling a tune, for his voice was very unmusical. He 



NOTES. 175 

would at the same time seat himself before the writing-table 
and swing back in his chair so far that I have often been 
fearful of his falling. He would vent his ill-humour on the 
right arm of his chair, mutilating it with his pan-knife, which 
he seemed to keep for no other purpose. 

" Bonaparte was insensible to the charms of poetic harmony. 
He had not even sufficient ear to feel the rhythm of poetry, 
and he never could recite a verse without violating the metre ; 
yet the grand ideas of poetry charmed him. 

" Gallantry to women was by no means a trait in Napoleon's 
character. He seldom said anything agreeable to them, and 
frequently addressed to them the rudest and most extraordinary 
remarks. To one he would say, * Heavens, how red your 
elbows are!' to another, 'What an ugly head-dress you have 
got ! ' and to a third, ' Your dress is none of the cleanest . . 
. . Do you never change your gown ? I have seen you in 
that twenty times." 

"Amongst Bonaparte's singular habits was that of seating 
himself on any table which happened to be of a suitable height 
for him. He would often sit on mine, resting his left arm on 
my right shoulder, and swinging his left leg, which did not 
reach the ground ; and while he dictated to me he would jolt 
the table so that I could scarcely write. 

" Bonaparte was neither malignant nor vindictive. I cannot 
certainly defend him against all the reproaches which he in- 
curred through the imperious law of war and cruel necessity ; 
but I may say that he has often been unjustly accused. None 
but those who are blinded by fury will call him a Nero or a 
Caligula. I think I have avowed his faults with sufficient 
candour to entitle me to credit when I speak in his commenda- 
tion, and I declare that out of the field of battle Bonaparte 
had a kind and feeling heart. He was very fond of children, a 
trait which seldom distinguishes a bad man. In the relations 
of private life, to call him amiable would not be using too 
strong a word, and he was very indulgent to the weakness of 
human nature. The contrary opinion is too firmly fixed in 
some minds for me to hope to root it out. I shall, I fear, have 
contradictors, but I address myself to those who look for truth. 
To judge impartially we must take into account the influence 



176 NOTES. 

which time and circumstance exercise on men ; and distinguish 
between the different characters of the collegian, the general, 
the consul, and the emperor/' — Bourrienne's Memoirs of Na- 
poleon. 

37. Napoleon was as essentially and irreclaimably a despot 
as warrior ; but his successor, whether a Bourbon or a Bona- 
parte, was likely to be a constitutional sovereign. The tyranny 
of a meaner hand would not have been endured after that pre- 
cedent. Napoleon broke down the barriers everywhere of 
custom and prejudice; and revolutionized the spirit of the 
Continent. His successes and his double downfall taught abso- 
lute princes their weakness, and injured nations their strength. 

38. Napoleon eat and slept according to the time, circum- 
stances and situation in which he found himself; his slumber 
was ordinarily sweet and tranquil; if grief or any incident 
interrupted it, he jumped out of bed, called for a light, walked, 
worked, fixed his mind upon an object, sometimes he remained 
in the dark, changed his room, got into another bed, or 
stretched himself on a sofa. He was up at two, three, four 
o'clock in the morning. He called some one to keep him 
company, to discourse upon recollections, or passing events, 
while they awaited the daylight. He went out as soon as it 
appeared, he took a turn, and when the sun showed himself, 
he went in and went to bed again where he remained a long 
time, or a short, according to the appearance of the day. If it 
was unpleasant and he felt irritated and uneasy, he had recourse 
to the method before explained, he changed from bed to sofa, and 
from sofa to bed ; variety did him good. " Doctors," said he 
to Antommarchi, " have the ordering of the table ; it is but 
fair that I give you a description of mine ; this is how it is 
arranged, one dish of soup, two of meat, one of vegetables, a 
salad when I can have it, compose the whole. I take half a 
bottle of claret much diluted, and a little pure at the end of 
dinner. For the rest I eat quickly and masticate little, for my 
meals do not take much of my time. You do not approve of 
that, but in my situation what is the advantage of mastication ?" 

39. Of all the popular engines which moved the spleen of 
Napoleon, the most offensive was a newspaper (L'Ambigu) 
published in the French language in London, by one Peltier, a 



NOTES. 177 

royalist emigrant ; and in spite of ail the advice which could be 
offered, he at length condescended to prosecute the author in 
the English courts of law. M. Peltier had the good fortune to 
retain as his counsel Mr. Mackintosh (afterwards Sir James) 
an advocate of most brilliant talents, and moreover especially 
distinguished for his support of the original principles of the 
French revolution. On the trial which ensued, this orator, in 
defence of his client, delivered a philippic against the personal 
character and ambitious measures of iSapoleon, immeasurably 
more calculated to injure the Chief Consul in public opinion 
throughout Europe, than all the efforts of a thousand news- 
papers; and though the jury found Peltier guilty of libel, the 
result was on the whole a signal triumph to the party of which 
he had been the organ. 

4 '). Bonaparte held the liberty of the press in the greatest 
horror; and so violent was his passion, when anything was 
urged in its favour, that he seemed to labour under a nervous 
attack. Great man as he was, he was sorely afraid of little 
paragraphs. — Bozirrienne's Memoirs. 

41. Bonaparte did not study much; he read all the news- 
papers that were brought to him, with attention. But during 
whole hours he was occupied in turning over page after page of 
Chambaud's Dictionary. There is some amusement to be 
found in Johnson's Dictionary, on account of the choice quota- 
tions it contains, but there is nothing of the kind in Chambaud. 
I suppose he kept his eyes mechanically fixed upon the book as 
an excuse for thinking. — Relation written at St. Helena of the 
Last Six Weeks of the Emperor Napoleon's Life f by John 
MonJchouse, a naval officer. 

42. Fouche furnishes us with an amusing proof how Na- 
poleon himself was subjected to a system of espionage : 

" One day Bonaparte observed, that considering my acknow- 
ledged ability, he was astonished I did not perform my functions 
better — that there were several things of which I was ignorant. 
1 Yes,' replied I, 'there certainly are things of which I was 
ignorant, but which I now know well enough. For instance, a 
little man muffled up in a grey cloak, and accompanied by a 
single servant, often steals out on a dark evening from the 
Tuileries, enters a closed carriage, and drives off to Signora 

N 



178 NOTES. 

G . This little man is yourself; and yet this fanciful 

songstress jilts you continually, out of love for Kode the fiddler/ 
The Consul answered not a word : he turned his back, rung, 
and I immediately withdrew." — Fouche's Memoires, torn. i. p. 
233. 

Fouche was perhaps the firmest support of despotism in 
France. He did not scruple to fulfil the most tyrannical 
wishes of the Emperor ; still less to approve his most tyrannical 
pretensions. He was more crafty than Napoleon himself, and 
as supple as crafty. 

"This is the way your majesty should always govern," he 
said. " The legislative body arrogates to itself the right of 
representing the nation in place of the sovereign ! Dissolve 
any body, sire, that thus dares to interfere with your royal pre- 
rogative. Had Louis XVI. done so, he would be living and 
reigning this very day." The Emperor stared : " How is this, 
Duke of Otranto ? Are you not one of those who sent Louis 
to the scaffold ?" " Yes, sire ; and that is the first service I 
had the honour of rendering your majesty." — Court and Camp 
of Bonaparte. 

43. " Bonaparte," said Mr. Wyndham in Parliament (1803), 
" is the Hannibal who has sworn to devote his life to the de- 
struction of England. War cannot be far off, and I believe it 
would be much safer to anticipate the blow than to expect it. 
I would advise ministers to appeal to the high-minded and proud 
of heart; whether they succeed or not, we shall not then go down 
like the Augustuli" "The destruction of this country," said 
Mr. Sheridan, " is the first vision that breaks on the French 
Consul through the gleam of the morning; this is his last 
prayer at night, to whatever deity he may address it, whether to 
Jupiter or to Mahomet, to the goddess of battles, or the goddess 
of reason. Look at the map of Europe, from which France 
was said to be expunged, and now see nothing but France. If 
the ambition of Bonaparte be immeasurable, there are abun- 
dant reasons why it should be progressive." 

Napoleon's Funeral at St. Helena. — Napoleon was buried 
on the 8th of May. All the inhabitants were assembled at 
Longwood to pay their last token of respect to the remains of 
the captive who had rendered their island immortal. At half- 



NOTES* 179 

past twelve o'clock at noon, the grenadiers placed the heavy triple 
coffin of tin, lead, and mahogany upon the hearse. It was 
drawn by four horses. Twelve grenadiers walked by the side 
of the coffin to take it upon their shoulders where the bad state 
of the road prevented the horses from advancing. The Em- 
peror's household, dressed in deepest mourning, immediately 
followed the hearse. Their hearts were stricken with grief, 
deep and unaffected. The admiral and the governor, with the 
officers of the staff, respectfully joined the procession on horse- 
back. All the inhabitants of St. Helena, men, women, and 
children, in a long winding train, reverently followed. The 
English garrison which had been stationed on the island to 
guard the Emperor, two thousand five hundred strong, lined the 
whole of the left side of the road nearly to the grave. Bands 
of music, stationed at intervals, breathed their requiems upon 
the still air. The soldiers, as the procession passed, fell into 
the line and followed to the grave. 

At length the hearse stopped. The grenadiers took the coffin 
on their shoulders, and carried it along a narrow path, which 
had been constructed on the side of the mountain, to the lonely 
place of burial. The coffin was placed on the verge of the 
grave. The Abbe Vignali recited the burial service, while all 
were overpowered by the unwonted solemnity and sublimity of 
the scene. During the funeral-march, the admiral's ship in 
the harbour had fired minute-guns ; and as the coffin descended 
to its chamber of massive masonry, deep in the earth, three 
successive volleys from a battery of fifteen guns, discharged 
over the grave, reverberated along the cliffs and crags of St. 
Helena. The willows which overhung the tomb were im- 
mediately stripped of their foliage, as each one wished to carry 
away some souvenir of the most extraordinary man the world 
has ever known. The officers of the household of the Emperor 
upon the day of his death, had ordered a stone to be prepared 
to rest upon his grave with this simple inscription : — 

NAPOLEON, 
Born at Ajaccio the 15th of August, 1769, 
Died at St. Helena the 5th of May, 1821. 



i So NOTES. 

The graver had already cut this inscription, when Sir Hudson 
Lowe informed the friends of the Emperor, that the orders of 
the British government were imperative that no inscription 
could he allowed on the tomb, but simply the words, General 
Bonaparte. — Abbott's Life of Nap. Bonaparte. 

4:5. Napoleon' 's Remains at Paris. The whole National 
Guard of Paris was drawn out to escort the remains of Na- 
poleon. The Polish emigrants, many of them men of high dis- 
tinction, sent a deputation earnestly requesting permission to 
assist in the funeral ceremonies of the only monarch who had 
ever expressed any sympathy in their cause. Louis Philippe, 
the king of the French, with all the members of the royal 
family, and the members of the chamber of deputies, and the 
chamber of peers, were assembled beneath the gorgeous dome 
of the Invalides, to render homage to the returning Emperor. 
The embellishments in Paris along the path of the procession, 
surpassed everything which had ever been attempted before. 
The arch of triumph was decorated with most imposing gran- 
deur. A colossal image of the Emperor stood upon its towering 
summit, looking serenely down upon his own marvellous 
triumph, and surrounded by those flags and eagles which his 
victories had rendered immortal. 

The view down the spacious avenue of the Champs Elysees, 
was imposing in the extreme. Each side was lined with lofty 
columns, surmounted by gilt eagles, and decorated with tri- 
coloured flags. Colossal statues, triumphal arches, immense 
vases blazing with variegated flames, and the assemblage of a 
countless multitude of spectators, presented a spectacle never 
to be forgotten. 

The imperial car was composed of five distinct parts, the 
basement, the pedestal, the caryatides, the shield, and the ceno- 
taph. The basement rested on four massive gilt wheels. 
This basement, which was twenty-five feet long, and six feet 
high, and all the rich ornaments with which it was profusely 
embellished, were covered with frosted gold. Upon this base- 
ment stood groups of cherubs, seven feet high, supporting a 
pedestal eighteen feet long, covered with burnished gold. 
This pedestal, elevated thirteen feet from the ground, was 
constructed with a heavy cornice richly ornamented. It was 



NOTES. 181 

hung in purple velvet, falling in graceful drapery to the ground, 
embroidered with gold and spotted with bees. Upon this ele- 
vated pedestal stood fourteen caryatides, antique figures larger 
than life, and entirely covered with gold, supporting with their 
heads and hands an immense shield of solid gold. This shield 
was of oval form, and eighteen feet in length, and richly deco- 
rated with all appropriate ornaments. Upon the top of this 
shield nearly fifty feet from the ground, was placed the ceno- 
taph, an exact copy of Napoleon's coffin. It was slightly veiled 
with purple crape, embroidered with golden bees. On the 
cenotaphs upon a velvet cushion were placed the sceptre, the 
sword of justice, the imperial crown in gold, and embellished 
with precious stones. Such is a general description of this 
funeral-car, the most sumptuous that was probably ever con- 
structed. 

The chariot was drawn by sixteen black horses, yoked four 
abreast. These steeds were so entirely caparisoned in cloth of 
gold, that their feet only could be seen. Waving plumes of 
white feathers adorned their heads and manes. Sixteen grooms 
wearing the imperial livery led the horses. 

At half-past nine in the morning, after prayers had been read 
over the body, twenty-four seamen raised the coffin on their 
shoulders, and following the procession of the clergy, conveyed 
it to the Grecian Temple. There it was deposited for a short 
time while the clergy again chanted prayers. The seamen then 
again took up their precious load, and conveyed it to the 
triumphal car. It was placed in the interior of the vehicle, its 
apparent place being occupied by the cenotaph on the summit 
of the shield. As the car commenced its solemn movement, 
the sun and moon were both shining in the serene and cloudless 
sky, gilding with extraordinary splendour this unparalleled scene. 
No language can describe the enthusiasm inspired as the car 
passed slowly along, surrounded by the five hundred sailors 
who had accompanied the remains from St. Helena, and pre- 
ceded and followed by the most imposing military array which 
the kingdom of France could furnish. More than a million of 
people were assembled along the line of march to welcome back 
the Emperor. All the bells in Paris were tolling. Music from 
innumerable bands filled the air, blending with the solemn peal 



1 82 NOTES. 

of minute-guns and of salutes of honour from many batteries. 
The multitude shouted, and sung, and wept. In a roar as of 
thunder, the Marseillese Hymn resounded from ten thousand 
voices, and was echoed and re-echoed along the interminable 
lines. 

The Church of the Invalides in the splendour of its adornings 
resembled a fairy palace. The walls were elegantly hung with 
rich drapery of violet velvet, studded with stars of gold, and 
bordered with a massive gold fringe. The eight columns which 
supported the dome were entirely covered with velvet, studded 
with golden bees. It would require a volume to describe the 
splendours of this room. Beneath its lofty dome, where the 
massive tomb of Napoleon was ulteriorly to be erected, a tomb 
which would cost millions of money, and which would require 
the labour of years, a magnificent cenotaph, in the form of a 
temple superbly gilded, was reared. This temple was pro- 
nounced by all judges to be one of the happiest efforts of 
decorative art. Here the remains of the Emperor were for a 
time to repose. Thirty-six thousand spectators were seated 
upon immense platforms, on the esplanade of the Invalides. 
Six thousand spectators thronged the seats of the spacious 
portico. In the interior of the church were assembled the 
clergy, the members of the two chambers of deputies and of 
peers, and all the members of the royal family, and others of 
the most distinguished personages of France and of Europe. 
As the coffin, preceded by the Prince de Joinville was borne 
along the nave upon the shoulders of thirty-two of Napoleon's 
old guard, all rose and bowed in homage to the mighty dead. 
Louis Philippe, surrounded by the great officers of state, then 
stepped forward to receive the remains. "Sire," said the 
prince, "I present to you the body of the Emperor Napoleon." 
" I receive it," replied the king, " in the name of France." 
Then taking from the hand of Marshal Soult the sword of Na- 
poleon, and presenting it to General Bertrand, he said " Gene- 
ral, I charge you to place this glorious sword of the Emperor 
upon this coffin." The king then returned to his throne, the 
coffin was placed in the catafalque, and the last wish of Napo- 
leon was gratified. The funeral mass was then celebrated. 
The king of France sat upon one side of the altar accompanied 



NOTES. 183 

by the queen, and all the princes and princesses of the royal 
family. The ministers and the marshals of the kingdom, the 
archbishop of Paris with his assistant bishops and clergy, and 
all the prominent civil and military authorities of France, 
gathered reverentially around the mausoleum in this last sub- 
lime act of a nation's love and gratitude. As the solemn strains 
of Mozart's Requiem, performed by three hundred musicians 
floated through the air, all hearts were intensely moved. Thus 
ended a ceremony which in all the elements of moral sublimity 
has no parallel. — Abbott's Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

46. Napoleon's Height, §*c. The entire height of the body 
from the top of the head to the heels was five feet two inches 
and four lines, equal to five feet six inches, and twenty-two 
forty-fifths of an inch, the French foot being greater than the 
English in the proportion of sixteen to fifteen. 

The extent from the extremity of the middle finger of one 
hand to that of the other, was five feet two inches. 

The length from the top of the head to the chin was seven 
inches and six lines. 

The circumference of the head was twenty inches and ten 
lines. The forehead was high, the temples slightly depressed, 
the sinciput wide and very strongly defined. 

I felt a curiosity to examine the head of this great man ac- 
cording to the craniological system of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, 
the following are the signs which were most apparent on it : 
1. Organ of dissimulation. 2. Organ of conquests. 3. Organ 
of kindness and benevolence. 4. Organ of imagination. 5. 
Organ of ambition and love of glory. Of intellectual faculties 
I found: 1. Organ of individuality. 2. Organ of locality, the 
relation of space. 3. Organ of calculation. 4. Organ of com- 
parison. 5. Organ of causality, of the faculty of induction, of 
a philosophical head. — AntommarcM s Last Days of Napoleon, 
vol. 2, pp. 163-5. 




INDEX. 



Page 



1/Bmm H Acknowledgment of the title of Emperor 


45 


26 
33 
53 


Affection of strangers ..... 
Alteration of the abdication .... 


76 
46 


An American on Napoleon at Helena 


50 


An open enemy ...... 

Answer to a deputation ..... 

Aristocracy ....... 

Arrangement of ideas ...... 

A soldier's duty . ...... 

A taste for founding ..... 

At Lodi ....... 


37 
25 
81 
10 
6 
11 
165 


Attachment ....... 


127 


Austria and the French Eepublic 


12 


Austria declares war ..... 


41 


Austrians at Marengo ..... 


68 


Aphorisms ....... 146 to 152 


Battle at Montereau ...... 44 


Beautiful Italy 131 

Before departing for Elba ..... 48 
Bernadotte 34, 110 


Bessiere's tomb . . . . . 


40 



INDEX. 



Bidding adieu to troops 

Blucher 

Bonaparte's assistant consuls 
Bonaparte's temper and tastes . 
Bonaparte and the liberty of the press 
Bridge of Lodi .... 
British magnanimity 
Bust of Napoleon's son 

Cannon ball at Friedland 

Cardinal Fesch and the Russian war 

Cerachi and the fanatic of Schoenbrunn 

Character of Duroc 

Christianity .... 

Christianity and Mahomet 

Cipriani .... 

Climate of France 

Codicil to Napoleon's will . 

Conduct of English sailors 

Confession to Caulaincourt 

Confidence in doctors 

Confirmation .... 

Conscription .... 

Conversations with ladies . 

Constantinople 

Contagion of crime . 

Contentions at Longwood 

Conversation .... 

Cornwallis .... 

Counsel to his son 

Bay and night work 

Death 

Death of Desaix 

Description of Napoleon at Longwood 

Devotion of the soldiers 

Directions to O'Meara 

Directors 



INDEX. 187 

Page 

Duroc 40 

Duroc's opinion of Napoleon . . . . .173 

Early youth . 65 

Effeminate men 6 

Egypt and fate . ..... 17 

England and liberty 79 

English soldiers 103 

Europe ......... 7 

Farewell to France 61 

Fate versus medicine 77 

Ferdinand of Spain . . . . . . .129 

First introduction to Sir Hudson Lowe ... 84 

Flogging in the army . . . . . . 61 

Frederic the Great's sword 28 

French and English eaters . . . . .103 

Friendship 20 

From Elba 49 

Gaming ......... 63 

General Bertrand's children . . . . . 125 

General Clarke 11 

General Dejean 100 

Giacominetta ........ 122 

Gift to Captain Poppleton 143 

Goethe and the German drama . . . . . 31 

Good mothers 24 

Head and tongue ....... 22 

Heroic times 32 

Histories of France 68 

Idea of the desert 19 

If 82 

If St. Helena were France . . . . .125 

Impossible ........ 9 

Imprisonment at St. Helena 60 



INDEX. 



Intended suicide at Fontainebleau 
Ivan Petrowisk .... 



Jesus Christ ...... 

Joseph Bonaparte ..... 

Josephine ....... 

Josephine's letter to a friend before marriage 
Josephine's extravagance .... 

Josephine on the birth of the King of Rome 



L'Ambigu .... 

La Nouvelle Heloise 

Lannes ..... 

Lannes at Lodi .... 

Last interview with the governor 

Last meeting with Josephine 

Last words .... 

Legitimacy .... 

Letter to Las Cases . 

List of books for a camp library 

Longwood 

Lord Whitworth and the peace of Amiens 

Loss of the " Italy" . 

Losses during the Russian war . 

Louis Bonaparte 

Love and glory .... 



Mamma Letitia 

Man an animal . 

Man's ingratitude 

Marie Louise 

Marriage of Marie Louise . 

Marshal Bessieres 

Marshal Turenne 

Medicine .... 

Medicines .... 

Men 

Men and women in sickness 



INDEX. 



Men in Italy ..... 
Men often children .... 
Message to the governor 
Miserable man ..... 
Mile, de Colombier .... 
Mme. de Maintenon and Mme. de Sevigne 

Mme. de Stael 

Monk and Napoleon politically compared 

Montchenu 

Montholon 

Mr. Wyndham on Bonaparte 

Murat 

Murat's desertion .... 

Music 

Myself 



Napoleon's German master 
Napoleon states his opinions 
Napoleon before the Convention 
Napoleon Commander-in-chief . 
Napoleon and the dragoon 
Napoleon and Mme. de Stael 
Napoleon upon the King's death 
Napoleon and Bourrienne . 
Napoleon's bulletins .... 
Napoleon's religion .... 
Napoleon and the young English sailor 
Napoleon and the other European sovereign 
Napoleon and the peasant woman 
u Napoleon on literature 
Napoleon's soldiers 
Napoleon's 38th birthday . 
Napoleon and Josephine at Etampes 
Napoleon on Moscow 
Napoleon at Dresden 
Napoleon at Malmaison 
Napoleon and the village child . 
Napoleon's son and France 



189 

Page 

7 
71 
98 
76 
3 
75 
80 

143 
87 
84 

178 
22 
37 

132 
61 

1 
3 
6 
8 
10 
11 
15 
15 
20 
23 
25 
26 
27 
29 
30 
30 
32 
36 
43 
do 
57 
58 



190 



INDEX. 



Napoleon a fatalist 
Napoleon's handwriting 
Napoleon and the Jews 
Napoleon's family 
Napoleon's divorce 
Napoleon's domestics 
Napoleon's dislike 
Napoleon out of humour 
Napoleon's name 
Napoleon on Waterloo 
Napoleon's mother 
Napoleon happy- 
Napoleon sensitive of intrusion 
Napoleon's father 
Napoleon's ornaments 
Napoleon's France 
Napoleon and the British 
Napoleon's birth 
Napoleon's hats and boots 
Napoleon and the Koran 
Napoleon on Murat . 
Napoleon's constancy . 
Napoleon at Dresden 
Napoleon at Court 
Napoleon and the English government 
Napoleon's aversion to Sir Hudson Lowe 
Napoleon's toilet 
Napoleon a despot 
Napoleon's diet and sleep . 
Napoleon and Chambaud's Dictionary 
Napoleon watched 
Napoleon's funeral at St. Helena 
Napoleon's remains at Paris 
Napoleon's height^ &c. 
Naples 

Occupation .... 

On the invasion of England 



INDEX. 


191 




Page 


Organized matter , 


. 101 


Paoli 


2 


Paris in 1814 


44 


Paris 




81 


Patron saints 




104 


Pavia and plunder 




10 


Picture of St. Jerome 




9 


Polignac's wife . 




26 


Poniatowski 




43 


Poor France 




67 


Pope's Iliad 




142 


Predestinarianism 




62 


Preference for monarchy 




4 


Prince Charles . 




19 


Proclamation before starting for England . 


16 


Proclamation before disembarking 


17 


Proclamation to the French .... 


08 


Proposition to make Napoleon Grand Elector 


22 


Proposed surrender of Illyria, &c. 


83 


Protest from the Bellerophon .... 


60 


Provinces and hearts ...... 


13 


Quarters of an hour ...... 


123 


Eeasons for hostility to Eoman Catholicism 


23 


Regrets ......... 


142 


Religion and the French ...... 


24 


Remarks on Sir H. Lowe's letters . 


102 


Renown ......... 


78 


Report of death and its result . 


35 


Required surrender of the crown . 


44 


Restoration of the Bourbons . 


45 


Respect the burden ....... 


75 


Rest 




128 


Rewards .... 




24 


Rousseau .... 




21 


Roveredo .... 


. 


166 



192 INDEX. 






Page 


Savary's system of espionage . 


156 


School fete ........ 


2 


School life . . . . . 


153 


Second interview with Sir H. Lowe . . 


85 


Sir Thomas Strange ....... 


98 


Sir John Moore ........ 


171 


Soult at Eylau 


162 


Starting for Erfurt ....... 


38 


St. Simon's daughter ...... 


31 


St. Helena 


69 


St. Helena and Elba compared .... 


69 


Study 


5 


Suicide from disappointed love .... 


27 


Suicide ........ 


47 


Survey of the English coast .... 


15 


Swiss enthusiasm ...... 


13 


Talleyrand 


75 


Talleyrand and the Bourbons .... 


. 169 


Temper in women . . . 


71 


Tents 


64 


The art of healing ...... 


. 129 


The barber's wife ...... 


3 


The Bourbons and the mob .... 


20 


The capital of Russia ...... 


59 


The Code Napoleon 


73, 167 


The crowd around the Champs Elysees 


57 


The crown in the mire ..... 


22 


The dilatory orderly-officer .... 


28 


The Dresden magistrates ..... 


39 


The Duke of Wellington 1 


01, 170 


The Duke of Wellington's position at Waterloo . 


. 170 


The dying Prussian ...... 


39 


The Elysian fields 


143 


The Emperor Alexander and Turkey . 


80 


The Emperor Francis visits Napoleon . 


28 


The English government and nation . 


58 


The fate of war 


43 



INDEX. 



193 



The First Consul and the mails 

The fishwoman disconcerted 

The greater number . 

The Italians 

The King of Rome at Compiegne 

The "man of destiny" 

The new constitution . 

The passage of the Niemen 

The pomp of the throne 

The priests 

The Pyramids . 

The Saviour . t *§&*#* * 

The savans and the demi-savans 

The school-girl of Ecouen 

The sick and wounded 

The sleeping sentinel . 

The Soul and the Scalpel 

The state was myself . 

The "Times" . 

The trappings of royalty 

The two Empresses . 

The wounded 

The 20th June, 1792 . 

Theophilanthropists . 

Time. 

Title of nobility . 

To Josephine 

To Murat . 

To the officers of state 

To the soldiers before Moscow 

Toulon 

Tragedy 

Treaty of Campo Formio 

Treaties with England 

Troy and Moscow 

Try ... 

Two paths . 

Tyrant's skin 



' 



i 9 4 INDEX. 

Page 

Valour • 38 

Veteran advice ........ 8 

Victory . . . . . . . . 19, 29, 64 

War . 30 

War and ambition 40 

War to the death 37 

Weakness overbearing 78 

What is life worth ? 13 

What is popularity ? 65 




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